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World Toilet Day 2022: making the invisible visible

Currently, 3.6 billion people use poor-quality toilets that harm their health and pollute the environment. Worldwide, at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces. Every day, more than 800 children die from diseases such as diarrhoea, which is caused by drinking unsafe water, poor hygiene and unsafe sanitation.

Perhaps all these figures seem exaggerated, but to make it even clearer, here's an enlightening fact: half of the population does not have access to a safe toilet, that is, half of the population does not have adequate sanitation.

And it's probably not your case, but it could be.

Poor sanitation systems end up contaminating water resources through rivers, lakes and soil, even reaching the groundwater. However, this fact is perhaps not given enough importance, as what happens underground seems invisible and, moreover, this occurs in poor and marginalized communities. But when this problem affects so many millions of people in the world, we must make an effort to make this invisible resource visible.

World Toilet Day is held every year on 19 November. Follow this year’s campaign actions in Twitter with the hashtag #WorldToiletDay

Indeed, groundwater pollution is such an important issue that the UN has decided to raise its profile by establishing "Sanitation and Groundwater" as the theme for World Toilet Day 2022. The title of this year's campaign, "Making the invisible visible", makes clear the need to go beyond our toilets and look a little further, to support proper sanitation in order to take care of our underground resources.

Poor sanitation systems end up contaminating water resources through rivers, lakes and soil, even reaching the groundwater

Households that do not share toilets, where excreta are safely disposed of, without polluting the water and with wastewater treatment facilities are considered to have "safe toilets", or safely managed sanitation.

Unfortunately, the number of households with safe sanitation is far below what it should be: 46.7% of the population do not have access to a safe toilet. In addition, almost 500 million people practice open defecation.

Because of the need to ensure access to safe sanitation for everyone, everywhere in the world, it is vital to celebrate World Toilet Day every November 19.

What is groundwater?

Groundwater is water found underground in aquifers, which are geological formations of rocks, sands and gravels that contain water. Groundwater represents the most abundant source of freshwater worldwide, providing water for drinking and for sanitation systems, for industrial processes, for ecosystems and for food production.

A safe and sustainable sanitation system must effectively collect human excreta in a dignified, safe and accessible environment, and ensure that the waste is subsequently treated correctly

Groundwater does not face the same challenges in rural and urban areas, as in urban areas septic tanks may be located near water withdrawal points, which take water from shallow aquifers. This can pose a serious risk, as it makes groundwater particularly vulnerable to contamination from soil and surface water. In rural areas, where there is less population density, although they face other difficulties, it is easier to locate septic tanks at a safe distance from water abstraction points.

Safely managed sanitation, in the right location, protects people from pathogens that may be present in the water from faecal waste. A safe and sustainable sanitation system must effectively collect human excreta in a dignified, safe and accessible environment, and ensure that the waste is subsequently treated correctly, either by disposing of the faeces or by reusing them, with a connection to a treatment facility. In addition, these treated faeces can be reused and be valuable to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, producing energy and providing a reliable source of water and nutrients for agriculture.

As if this were not enough, climate change also adds a further challenge to the sanitation crisis. Increasingly frequent floods and droughts, as well as changes in water availability, mean that sustainable sanitation systems must also be able to withstand the effects of climate change, making groundwater buffer zones essential to ensure that sanitation systems, land-use planning and water abstraction do not negatively impact the quality and quantity of groundwater resources.

Remediating groundwater that has been polluted is a long and difficult process, so it is necessary to act early, anticipate the effects of water pollution, and protect and sustainably use groundwater to meet the needs of a growing population.

The need for shared governance

The importance of groundwater to the global ecosystem must be reflected in decision-making. Global and national policies must be able to create governance frameworks that promote information and sustainable practices to strengthen the link between groundwater and sanitation.

The importance of groundwater to the global ecosystem must be reflected in decision-making

Cooperation between different organizations thus becomes essential, as according to the latest data, governments will need to work, on average, four times faster to meet the SDG target 6.2 in the next eight years. The World Toilet Day 2022 campaign calls on decision-makers and policymakers to accelerate progress on sanitation and ensure that the relationship between sanitation and groundwater is reflected in legislation and guidelines at all administrative levels, from international and national to local.

We must protect groundwater from pollution and use it sustainably, balancing the needs of people and the planet. Only in this way will we be able to protect our ecosystems, ensure the viability and sustainability of the planet and ensure that we all have a decent toilet.