Questions people ask about safe toilets

A toilet is much more than a toilet. The physical object that you use to relieve yourself is the interface between you and a complex service.

To safely take away and dispose of your waste (“poo”) requires a ‘sanitation service chain’ of infrastructure, systems, people and behaviours.

When that sanitation service is broken or absent, people’s health suffers, greenhouse gases are emitted, and environmental pollution increases.

Public health depends on everyone having access to safely managed sanitation – or “safe toilets” – in all circumstances, at all times.

But right now, billions of people are being left behind without these essential services, with devastating and wide-ranging impacts for health and wellbeing across the world.

Here are some of the questions people ask us about toilets:

Is there a sanitation crisis?

Yes. 3.5 billion people live without safely-managed sanitation. In these communities, and far beyond, human waste gets out into the environment and spreads deadly diseases.

The World Health Organization has declared an emergency in response to the global resurgence of cholera, an extremely virulent diarrhoeal disease transmitted through contaminated food or water that can kill within hours if left untreated.

Leaving so many people behind without safe toilets raises the risk of epidemics, and even pandemics. Lack of safe toilets also endangers the health and safety of girls and women, who have nowhere hygienic and secure to go to the toilet, which is even more challenging during menstruation, pregnancy, older age or with a disability.  

The global sanitation crisis is the focus of World Toilet Day, held every year on 19 November. In 2024, the campaign will promote cooperation on sanitation and water as a tool for peace, and the particular challenges people in conflict situations face when they lack sanitation.

Why are toilets so important?

Access to sanitation is a human right – it entitles everyone to have physical and affordable access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, that is safe, hygienic, secure, and socially and culturally acceptable and that provides privacy and ensures dignity.

Countries promised to deliver safe toilets for all by 2030, as part of Sustainable Development Goal 6, but we are seriously off track. This slow progress is a major threat not only to global public health, but also to many other areas, especially gender equality, education and ecosystems.

• 1.4 million people die each year as a result of inadequate access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene. Unsafe sanitation accounts for 564,000 of these deaths, largely from diarrhoeal disease. (WHO 2019)
• Unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene are responsible for the deaths of around 1,000 children under five every day. (UNICEF 2023)

• At the current rate of progress, 3 billion people will still be living without safe toilets by 2030. (WHO/UNICEF 2023)
• 10% of healthcare facilities around the world have no sanitation service, affecting 780 million people. (WHO/UNICEF 2023)

World Health Day 2024, backed by WHO, is called ‘My health, my right’ and raises awareness of the many threats to health, including diseases as significant causes of death and disability.

Safe toilets for all, alongside safe drinking water and good hygiene practices such as handwashing with soap, are a simple and cost-effective way to reduce disease transmission and protect lives. 

How do we ensure everyone has a safe toilet by 2030?

The latest data show we need to work five times faster to ensure safely managed sanitation – or ‘safe toilets’ – for all by 2030.

This means rapid and increased investment along the ‘sanitation service chain’, which has four stages:

1. Containment: Human waste – or “poo” – must be deposited into a hygienic toilet and stored in a sealed pit or tank, separated from human contact.
2. Transport: Pipes or latrine emptying services must move the poo to the treatment stage.
3. Treatment: Poo must be processed into treated wastewater and waste products that can be safely returned to the environment.
4. Disposal or reuse: Safely treated poo can be used for energy generation or as fertilizer in food production.

Households cannot do it alone. A safe sanitation chain needs strong government leadership and investment, along with inputs made by households and the private sector.

Why do we need to change our behaviour when it comes to sanitation ?

Toilets are not only about technology and infrastructure. Establishing and maintaining a safely managed sanitation service – whether at home, school, workplaces or public spaces – depends on three areas of action:

1. Create demand: Tailor information and education campaigns to encourage positive change around toilet use, hygiene and maintenance.
2. Create supply: Establish a market of culturally-appropriate toilet options with affordable installation and also emptying, transport and treatment services.
3. Create regulation: Governments need to set minimum standards, provide consumer protection, offer subsidies for lowest-income households, and set inspection regimes for toilets, pits and septic tanks, and also utilities providing treatment offsite.