51³Ô¹Ï

An international day devoted to toilets?? Many people around the world think you're joking when you tell them that 19 November is World Toilet Day.?But access to clean water and sanitation is no laughing matter.

A few facts:

• 1000 children died per day from diarrhoeal diseases due to poor sanitation in 2013. These deaths are preventable.
• Clean and safe toilets help keep more girls in school and increase attendance rates. Far too many girls miss out on education just because of the lack of a clean and safe toilet.
• The 2015 goal to halve the proportion of people living without sanitation is running 150 years behind schedule.?One billion people (15 % of the world population) still practice open defecation.
• Every $1 spent on water and sanitation generates a $4.3 return in the form of reduced health care costs.

In 2013 the 51³Ô¹Ï General Assembly officially designated?November 19 as World Toilet Day to raise awareness about the 2.4 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation, the nearly 1 billion people who have to defecate in the open and the millions of children whose futures are compromised by poor sanitation and related problems. World Toilet Day is coordinated by??in collaboration with governments and relevant stakeholders.

This year World Toilet Day is focusing on the link between sanitation and nutrition drawing the world's attention to the importance of toilets in supporting better nutrition and improved health. Lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation, along with the absence of good hygiene practices, are among the underlying causes of poor nutrition.

In marking the day 51³Ô¹Ï Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged broad action to renew efforts in providing access to adequate sanitation for all and work to comprehensively address the vicious cycle connecting poor sanitation and malnutrition. Sanitation is central to human and environmental health as well as to individual opportunity, development and dignity. Yet today, worldwide, one in every three people lacks improved sanitation, and one in every eight practices open defecation, said Mr. Ban Ki-moon in his ?on the Day.

By many accounts, sanitation is the most-missed target of the Millennium Development Goals, the Secretary-General said. This is why the??was launched in 2013, and why we aim to end open defecation by 2025.

Outside UN Headquarters in New York, a huge inflatable toilet was installed to promote awareness of World Toilet Day. Around 30 events in 18 different countries were held in the lead up to World Toilet Day to promote awareness, including charity runs, educational events, public toilet cleaning programmes and carnivals with a unified message calling for urgent action to end the sanitation crisis.

To learn more about World Toilet Day and see how you can contribute, click .