The toilet is a place for peace, protection and progress

Toilets and safely managed sanitation are essential for public health, human dignity and well-being. They are necessary for building sustainable and resilient communities, as well as for social stability, in education, and for creating a healthy environment. It can be difficult to imagine that not everybody has access to one. World Toilet Day on 19 November specifically celebrates toilets and raises awareness of people living without access to safely managed sanitation.

A safely managed sanitation system consists of a 4-stage "sanitation chain":

1. Containment: human waste must be deposited into a hygienic toilet and stored in a sealed pit or tank, separated from human contact. Onsite containment may also safely treat waste.
2. Transport: if not treated onsite, pipes or latrine emptying services must move the waste to the treatment stage.
3. Treatment: waste must be processed into treated wastewater and waste products that can be safely returned to the environment.
4. Disposal or reuse: safely treated human waste can be used for energy generation or as fertilizer in food production.

Moving beyond the technical definitions, the humble toilet can also be a place for peace, protection and progress, as highlighted by the theme of this year's World Toilet Day. A toilet should be a secure, hygienic and private place where people can relieve themselves in dignity and safety - and it should be connected to a safely managed sanitation system to properly dispose of waste. Conflict and extreme weather events, often linked to climate change, threaten those systems and slow progress towards achieving safely managed sanitation for all.

Basic sanitation and drinking-water still a challenge in the WHO European Region

In the pan-European region alone in 2022, 200 million people still did not have access to safely managed sanitation and about 73 million people lacked access to a safely managed drinking-water supply. A WHO/Europe report on progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 revealed that despite high population coverage rates of basic and safely managed drinking-water and sanitation services, considerable disparities remain between regions.

• In the WHO European Region, 90 people die every day from diarrhoeal disease and acute respiratory infections due to unsafe or inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.
• Nearly a fifth of all investigated outbreaks of infectious diseases in the pan-European region are attributable to inadequate drinking-water and sanitation services.

WHO/Europe and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe are working together with Member States under the Protocol on Water and Health to protect human health and well-being through sustainable water management and by preventing and controlling water- and sanitation-related diseases. A recently published report highlights how adaptive management and scenario-based water and sanitation safety planning can protect this oasis of peace from threats like climate change. The Protocol on Water and Health promotes collaboration between all concerned stakeholders and supports enhanced resilience through target setting and data harmonization.

On World Toilet Day and every day, let us renew this spirit of collaboration, so that everybody can enjoy safe sanitation in peace.