WORLD TOILET DAY – ACCELERATING CHANGE
19 NOVEMBER
A toilet is small but mighty – just like a hummingbird! The hummingbird is the symbol of World Toilet Day and World Water Day 2023.
In the ancient story, a hummingbird does what she can to fight a great fire – carrying droplets of water in her beak. Her actions – even though small – are helping solve a big problem.
Everyone can do something to tackle the sanitation crisis.
You can be like the hummingbird. The more ‘hummingbirds’ there are, the bigger the impact.
What can you do?
THE SANITATION CRISIS
Right now, there are 3.5 billion people still living without safe toilets. 419 million people still practise ‘open defecation’. In these situations, diseases spread, killing 1,000 children under-five every single day. This global crisis poses a threat to nature and everyone’s health, particularly women, girls, and other vulnerable groups.
Your actions – however small – will help improve toilets and sanitation systems and protect nature. We are now counting down to 2030, with just seven years left to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) – safe toilets and water for all by 2030.
Today, the world is seriously off track. We need to work five times faster on sanitation.
World Toilet Day 2023 is about accelerating change by doing whatever you can. Take action today, learn about the issues and share the campaign with your networks.
Learn
The countdown to 2030 has begun. We must accelerate progress to ensure everyone has safe toilets and water by 2030. Sanitation and drinking-water are human rights, and access to these services is critical to people’s health and the integrity of the environment.
Back in March, the world united at the UN 2023 Water Conference and produced the Water Action Agenda. The Agenda is the collection of more than 800 existing and new commitments on sanitation and water from governments, companies, organizations and other institutions. On top of this, over 7,000 members of the public have made their own promises via the Be The Change campaign.
What we need now is much faster action – for everyone to be accountable for delivering on their promises.
How will you help make change happen?
SHARE
Everything you need to share the campaign is here.
Your activation kit will help you promote World Toilet Day 2023 to friends, contacts and elected representatives.
You can even print sustainably produced merchandise to spread the message offline in the real world!
ACT
Be the change you want to see in the world.
The ancient story of the hummingbird shows us that personal action – however small – can help solve a big crisis.
For World Toilet Day, we encourage you to choose sanitation related actions to speed up progress on this part of SDG 6:
- Break taboos: Talk about the critical connection between toilets, water and menstruation.
- Flush safe: Fix leaking water and waste pipes, empty full septic tanks and report dumping of sludge.
- Stop polluting: Don’t put food waste, oils, medicines and chemicals down the toilet or drains.
- Build pressure: Write to elected representatives about budgets for improving water and sanitation at home and abroad.
Coordinated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), AquaFed – the International Federation of Private Water Operators, and the World Youth Parliament for Water for World Water Day; and, by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for World Toilet Day.
The Task Force consists of the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW), CDP Worldwide, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Green Climate Fund, Global Water Partnership (GWP), Human Right 2 Water, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), International Labour Organization (ILO), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Public Services International (PSI), Sanitation and Water for All (SWA), Toilet Board Coalition, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Global Compact, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Women for Water Partnership (WfWP), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).