At odds with what’s going on in the world currently, the theme of this year’s World Toilet Day, which is marked every year on 19th November, (but is no doubt planned well ahead) is ‘peace’. 

  

As the United Nations says: “Toilets are a place for peace. This essential space, at the centre of our lives, should be safe and secure. But for billions of people, sanitation is under threat from conflict, climate change, disasters and neglect. Toilets are a place for protection. By creating a barrier between us and our waste, sanitation services are essential for public and environmental health. But when toilet systems are inadequate, damaged or broken, pollution spreads and deadly diseases get unleashed. When toilet systems don’t work – or don’t exist – untreated human waste spreads in the environment, unleashing deadly diseases such as cholera. Sanitation is a human right. It protects everyone’s dignity, and especially transforms the lives of women and girls. More investment and better governance of sanitation are critical for a fairer, more peaceful world.” 

  

I’ve tried to imagine how life would be without a bathroom and toilet at home at home and am struggling to get my head around how different life would be. 

  

According to WHO/UNICEF figures from 2023: 

You’ll have Internet if you’re reading this and thus I daresay will also have a fairly decent toilet somewhere in the vicinity. I suspect that like me, you’ll grumble when you visit public washrooms and find that they’re dirty, or that supplies of essentials such as toilet tissue and soap have run out, but it’s something we can live with. Indeed when my daughters were tiny and I discovered that the washrooms in our local park weren’t ever stocked with disposables, I got into the habit of always carrying my own tissue and handwash. “At least we have toilets to use” I’d be thinking. Nowadays more often than not, any parks I visit with my granddaughter don’t actually have public toilets and I’m surprised on the rare occasion that I do see them. I do know, however, that in the event of an emergency, there will likely be some fairly nearby and that failing this, there’s always ‘home’. 

  

Sometimes we just don’t realise how lucky we actually are, do we?