Compiled Today is World Toilet Day This year's theme is "Valuing Toilets" for more than 7.5 billion people worldwide There are 3.6 billion people who don't have toilets available

World Toilet Day is celebrated on 19 November, and this year's theme is "Valuing Toilets". About 3 years of a person's life is spent in a toilet, but there are more than 7.5 billion people worldwide, and 3.6 billion people do not have a toilet available...

>> data

2 billion people use drinking water sources contaminated with feces

Every day, 700 children under the age of five die from diarrhoea

In order to make more people pay attention to the health problems in poor and backward areas, since 2013, the United Nations has designated 19 November as World Toilet Day.

The theme of World Toilet Day 2021 is "Valuing Toilets". According to the United Nations, 3.6 billion people worldwide still have no toilets available, and at least 2 billion people use drinking water sources contaminated with feces. Every day, more than 700 children under the age of five die from diarrhoea associated with unsafe drinking water, unsafe sanitation and poor sanitation.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: "Toilets can save lives, enhance gender equality and promote progress for society as a whole. For every $1 invested in latrines and sanitation, there is a return of up to $5, including savings in health care costs, improving health, increasing productivity, promoting education, and increasing employment. On this World Toilet Day, let us keep our promise to leave no one behind and take action to address the global health crisis and access to clean water and sanitation for all by 2030. ”

>> India

100 million toilets were built in 5 years

Many people still like to defecate in the open

In 2015, about 950 million people worldwide were defecating in the open, including about 569 million in India. Every year in India, 140 000 children under the age of 5 die from diarrhoea.

Due to the lack of toilets, many Indian women can only go to the secluded wilderness at dawn or dusk. According to UNICEF, there is a rape every 22 minutes in India, with 50% of rapes occurring when women go to the toilet in the field.

According to the 2017 World Toilet Day report, about 732 million people in India do not have access to toilets (about 56% of India's population), equivalent to the population of Europe combined. If these Indians without toilets were lined up, they could circle the globe in four full circles.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Clean Campaign after taking office in 2014, borrowing $1.5 billion from the World Bank, with the goal of completely eliminating outdoor defecation by 2019. In October 2019, Modi gave a public speech: "We have built more than 100 million toilets in 5 years, completely eliminating the bad habit of outdoor defecation in India!" ”

In order to encourage people to go to the toilet, the Indian government uses television, newspapers, billboards, etc. to expose those who go to the toilet in the open; urban areas will also send special water wheels, and when they find people defecating on the ground, they will immediately use high-pressure water guns to rush; in some places, they also stipulate that people will be rewarded with 1 rupee for each toilet; some local governments stipulate that public officials and government officials will deduct their wages and even dismiss them if they do not have a photo of the toilet at home. The Indian government has even put up the slogan of "no toilet, no wife", if the bride and groom take a group photo in their own toilet at the wedding, the government has additional rewards...

According to the Guardian, the Indian government subsidizes 75% of the construction cost of self-built toilets for families, but some of these toilets have become storage rooms, some have become small shops, some are used to pile grain, and some are full of livestock.

In December 2019, the US media revealed that 450 million Indians were still defecating in the open air. Experts say the traditional concept is deeply rooted, and many Hindus see cleanliness as a holy relic, seeing toilets as unclean places, and therefore avoiding household toilets. Toilets in India are basically public toilets. Due to the influence of the caste system, cleaning toilets is considered to be something that only low-caste dalits do, resulting in permanent vacancies in public toilet cleaner positions. Over time, the public toilets invested by the government were also abandoned.

>> United States

People suffer from a shortage of public toilets

The homeless had no choice but to put on diapers

In March this year, the New York Times published a report titled "America, a country without the freedom to urinate," which immediately sparked a heated discussion on the Internet and resonated with the vast number of Americans.

The article said that the most disgraceful infrastructure failure in the United States was the lack of public toilets, calling on President Biden to introduce an infrastructure plan to solve the bladder and gut needs.

In the article, the American humorist Alte Buchwald openly searched for a toilet in Manhattan, New York, and he was rejected by office buildings, bookstores and hotels, and eventually rushed into the bar, but was asked to drink a drink to use the toilet.

The U.S. government has found that operating public toilets is costly to maintain and sometimes prone to drug use and prostitution, exacerbating the widespread shortage of public toilets. The lack of public toilets has made U.S. cities unsiliable, and open defecation has become a threat to public health.

Why are there so few public toilets in the United States? Banks, a professor at the University of Maryland, said free or inexpensive government-run toilets are hard to find, and that toilets in government agencies have been hardly open to the public since the 9/11 attacks. In places like restaurants and bars, the "toilets are for customers only" sign means that people have to go to the toilets and have to go into stores to spend, which is a problem for the poor.

Banks said that during the COVID-19 epidemic, all mobile toilets have also been locked, and those restaurants, cafes and other related venues do not accept toilet users. As a result, homeless people, couriers and office workers who need to be away for a long time are all facing the embarrassing situation of having nowhere to go to the toilet. Some homeless people can only carry diapers or cat litter boxes, but most homeless people can only choose to solve in the open.

New York City, with 8.5 million residents, has only 1,103 public toilets in total, and only two are open 24/7. Only 700 of the 1,700 parks have toilets, and only 48 of the 468 subway stations have toilets.

Why doesn't the New York city government build more public toilets? According to the analysis, New York has poor security, and public toilets can easily become places for drug abuse and prostitution. In 2015, New York police arrested 17,000 people who broke the law in public toilets. Data show that New York captures between 20,000 and 30,000 outlaws who defecate on the ground each year.

>> Japan

Going to the toilet is equivalent to a health check

Health status can be tracked through excrement

In terms of the "toilet revolution", Japan can be described as a successful case.

In Japan, whether in restaurants, shopping malls, subway stations or street restaurants, the walls, floor tiles and sanitary ware of the toilets are polished and clean, and there are no problems such as toilet leaks or broken toilet doors. All this stems from the "public toilet revolution" that emerged in Japan in the 1980s, which regarded public toilets as their "face" and set up some special-looking toilets at various sightseeing spots, and clean cleaning was standard.

In recent years, Japan has also focused on developing toilets that are convenient for the disabled and other people with special needs, and a new generation of high-tech toilets has entered daily life.

According to the report, Japan has newly invented a smart public toilet, going to the toilet is equal to health examination, with a system for analyzing feces and urine, and tracking health status through excrement. Compiled by Guo Ji, a reporter of Huashang Daily