“Sanitation is more important than
independence.”
Mahatma Gandhi, 1925
Did you know that one
in three people in the
world do not have a
safe, clean and private
toilet and a lot of those
people live in Africa?
Having access to a toilet
is a basic human right
and without good
sanitation human waste
can destroy
communities.
Not having a proper toilet can lead
to diarrhoea which kills many
people, children in particular are
especially vulnerable.
Statistics from UNICEF show that
1600 young children die every day
from diarrhoea related illnesses
Here in rural parts of
Gambia, some of us go
to the toilet in fields,
bushes, ditches or
rivers.
Some of us use
squat latrines,
which either flush
or use buckets of
water to take the
waste away
And we have pit
latrines, which do not
flush. They are a hole in
the ground connected
to a bigger hole under
the ground.
We don’t always
have toilet paper.
We often clean
ourselves with
water.
In the larger
towns we have
flushing toilets
like you do.
In our schools we
have outside
toilet blocks
which look like
this.
Jack Sim founded a World
Toilet Day to raise
awareness of the lack of
toilets across the world.
He is known as Mr Toilet!
World Toilet Day
happens every year on
19th November and
aims to raise
awareness of
sanitation problems
around the world.
You can watch a musical video
from Louie the Loo here:
http://www.wateraid.org/uk/
news/news/say-thank-youtoilet-this-world-toilet-day
Having a wee or going
for a poo is something
that we all do, but it’s
often something we
don’t talk about
because it’s thought of
as rude, wrong or funny.
But can you imagine not
having a toilet?
Can you imagine not
having somewhere
clean and private to go
when you need to
relieve yourself?
In your country it’s
probably very hard to
imagine this.
Let’s finish
with some
interesting
toilet facts...
Toilet fact 1:
• More people in the world have a mobile
phone than a toilet.
Toilet fact 2
• The world's most expensive toilet is in Hong
Kong and is solid gold and worth over three
million pounds. (£3,000,000)
Toilet fact 3
• In your lifetime you'll spend three years
sitting on the toilet.
Toilet fact 4
• The flushing toilet was invented by Thomas
Crapper!
Toilet fact 5
• The biggest ever roll of toilet paper was 2.97
metres in diameter. You could wipe a T Rex's
bottom with that!
Well we hope you
liked learning about
toilets. We will be in
contact again soon.
Bye.