The United Nations General Assembly designated 19 November as World Toilet Day in a bid to help break taboos around toilets and make sanitation for all a global development priority. The Resolution A/RES/67/291 titled "Sanitation for All" was adopted on 24 July, 2013, urged UN Member States and relevant stakeholders to encourage behavioural change and the implementation of policies to increase access to sanitation among the poor, along with a call to end the practice of open-air defecation, which it deemed extremely harmful to public health.The resolution also recognizes the role that civil society and non-governmental organizations play in raising awareness of this issue. It also calls on countries to approach sanitation in a much broader context that includes hygiene promotion, the provision of basic sanitation services, and sewerage and wastewater treatment and reuse in the context of integrated water management.

FORUM: Sustainable sanitation and climate change - World Toilet Day 2020.

Sanitation is a question of basic dignity and women safety, who should not risk being victims of rape and abuse because of lack of access to a toilet that offers privacy. This year the theme remarks the importance of "Sustainable sanitation and climate change".Climate change is accelerating. Flood, drought, and rising sea levels are threatening sanitation systems – from toilets to septic tanks to treatment plants. Floodwater can contaminate wells used for drinking water or flooding might damage toilets and spread human waste into communities and food crops, causing deadly and chronic diseases.Everyone must have sustainable sanitation, alongside clean water and handwashing facilities, to help protect and maintain our health security and stop the spread of deadly infectious diseases such as COVID-19, cholera, and typhoid.

Statement by the United Nations Secretary-General on World Toilet Day 2020, November 19th.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the importance of sanitation, safe water and handwashing facilities to stop the spread of infectious diseases. Everyone should have access to hygienic, safe, sustainable sanitation. That is the only way to ensure health for all.

But around the world today, 4.2 billion people are without safe sanitation. Two billion of these people – more than one quarter of the global population – lack basic sanitation, undermining health, dignity, and economic development.

However, rapid progress on sanitation is possible. Many countries have transformed their sanitation facilities and services within a generation, through programmes including the universal provision of toilets, and improved treatment and use of wastewater. This has had knock-on benefits for their health systems and economies, and for the environment.

Achieving water and sanitation for all would cost an estimated 1.5 percent of global Gross Domestic Product, and would bring considerable economic benefits with an estimated return of more than four dollars for every dollar invested.

Today’s sanitation services must be resilient, in order to deal with shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic. Unless we act now, the climate crisis will disrupt sanitation services for millions. We need innovative thinking around sanitation services so they are fit for the future.

On World Toilet Day, let’s resolve to take action to deliver health and sanitation for billions of people around the world, today and for future generations.

António Guterres. U.N. Secretary-general.

CAMPAIGN: Achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

World Toilet Day celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 4.2 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. It is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Your engagement in the campaign is crucial to our success.