World Toilet Day

Toilet Day on 19 November gets promoted every year via social media campaigns, online petitions, and by getting involved in a range of events held in different countries worldwide. More people in the world have a mobile phone than a toilet and of the seven billion people in the world six billion have mobile phones. The contrast to this is that only 4.5 billion people have access to toilets or latrines – implying that 2.5 billion people, mostly in rural areas, do not have proper sanitation.

World Toilet Day is about the 2.5 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation and the millions of children whose prospects are compromised by poor sanitation.

The Water Research Commission (WRC) of South Africa is currently engaging in key strategic initiatives around sanitation research. Full waterborne sanitation coverage is difficult to attain for most developing countries nor is it recommended. For many years the Ventilated Improved Latrine or VIP has been considered the accepted basic standard for sanitation provision in South Africa. New toilet designs are needed which do not place the user above a pit. Many new design ideas are being explored by the WRC and others. There are numerous technologies in the market today. Some of these technologies include package plants and other innovations that use of combination or hybridisation of different treatment process. Through the Sanitation Innovation Challenge “SanIC”, the WRC was, on behalf of the Department of Water and Sanitation, to collate information regarding different technologies and innovations available in the country.