TOILET talk is taboo, but the World Toilet Organisation says its time for that to change.
Sanitation is critical to the environment, health, personal safety and self-esteem, so to mark World Toilet Day on Thursday, Leamington-based
TOILET talk is taboo, but the World Toilet Organisation says its time for that to change.
Sanitation is critical to the environment, health, personal safety and self-esteem, so to mark World Toilet Day on Thursday, Leamington-based charity CORD lifts the lid on their plan to bring lavatories to Burundi.
YOU may take your loo break for granted, but can you imagine a world without toilets?
About a third of the world’s population has no access to a private, sanitary toilet, instead having to use roadsides, streams, fields, plastic bags or disease-breeding buckets.
But for every £1 spent on sanitation, the UN claims at least £9 is saved in health, education and economic development, so toilets are the perfect place to start making progress.
In June, CORD - based in New Street, Leamington - launched the world’s first toilet twinning project, allowing you to link your loo with its very own twin in the African bush.
You twin your toilet with a new loo 4,000 miles away in Burundi and in return for your sponsorship you get a certificate with a picture of your twinned toilet and its exact co-ordinates so you can see it for yourself on Google Earth.
Richard Dickson, CORD’s head of supporter relations, said: “It’s a fun way of tackling a very serious issue.
“We explained to our African colleagues that we wanted to use toilet twinning as a way of building more latrines, which necessitates them going round on mopeds with a satellite phone getting the exact GPS co-ordinates of where these toilets are.
“To explain to someone in Africa why we want to do this bizarre thing is actually quite a challenge.
“We have to explain that in the current climate people want to get something back. People in the UK are suffering from charity fatigue so anything that appears fun and helps people to feel good about helping those far less fortunate will appeal.”
When civil war broke out, half a million Burundians fled the country to refugee camps in neighbouring Tanzania.
Fifteen years later they are returning to find their homes have been destroyed, their schools are in chronic dilapidation, there is no water supply and sparse sanitation.
Richard said: “For the women in particular it’s very dangerous because it means having to use roadsides, fields and streams. There’s no privacy and no security.
“You’re sat there, exposed, on your own, and therefore liable to attack, assault or rape.
“For everyone else, it’s obviously very unhealthy to have to use the side of the road and have no where to wash your hands.”
More than 433 million school days are lost each year because of water-borne diseases, as poor toilet facilities hold children back in education and stop adults back from being able to work
According th