The topic of World Toilet Day is sustainable sanitation and climate change

Globally, 4.2 billion people do not have access to safely-managed sanitation and 673 million of them do not have access to any toilet at all and still practice open defecation. Toilets and safe sanitation protect health and can even help tackle climate change.

Three key messages highlighted during the 2020 World Toilet Day are:

• Flood, drought and rising sea levels threaten sanitation systems – from toilets to septic tanks to treatment plants. Everyone must have sustainable sanitation that can withstand climate change and keep communities healthy and functioning.
• Sustainable sanitation is resilient to climate change and safely processes bodily waste. Toilets, combined with clean water and good hygiene, form a strong defence against COVID 19 and future disease outbreaks.
• Wastewater and sludge from toilets contain valuable water, nutrients and energy. Sustainable sanitation systems make productive use of waste to safely boost agriculture and reduce and capture emissions for greener energy.

Under the Protocol on Water and Health, UNECE and WHO/Europe support pan-European countries to improve water, sanitation and health policies taking into account climate change and the most vulnerable people to leave no one behind.

To find out more on how the Protocol’s activities support pan-European countries, please follow the links below:
- Increasing resilience to climate change of the WASH sector: https://bit.ly/2UPYiEt
- Ensuring equitable access to water and sanitation: https://bit.ly/3pThob0
- Improving WASH in schools and healthcare facilities: https://bit.ly/2KovD7m
- The linkages between the Protocol and COVID-19: https://bit.ly/35K12cq


WHO Regional Office for Europe prepared a special video accessible:
-In English at: https://bit.ly/3ffilWf
-In Russian at: https://bit.ly/36QOpM1

For more information on World Toilet Day and the themes presented in this video, please visit https://www.worldtoiletday.info/