It is time to talk about toilets!

Beijing, 19 November 2012 – On World Toilet Day, UNICEF says that trends in the past five years allow for cautious optimism that significant progress will be made in decreasing the number of people globally without safe sanitation.  

A lack of toilets remains one of the leading causes of illness and death among children. UNICEF estimates that around 2 million children die each year from pneumonia and diarrhoea, illnesses which are largely preventable with improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene. 

According to UNICEF only 64% of the population in China have improved toilets. An improved latrine is one that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact.

According to a 2012 joint UNICEF and World Health Organization report, 36 per cent of the national population, or 477 million Chinese, have no access to safe toilets.

Despite the large number of people without safe sanitation, China has made significant progress in improving rural sanitation services in recent years. In 1990 less than a quarter of China's population had access to safe sanitation.

“People are ashamed of toilets,” said Dr. Yang Zhenbo, UNICEF Water and Sanitation specialist, “especially in rural China, toilets are seen as a filthy place and people refuse to build in toilets when they construct new houses or new schools.”

“When people get access to safe sanitation many aspects of human development improve, and the situation of children improves as well,” said Gillian Mellsop, UNICEF Representative in China. “That is why we are saying it's time to talk more about toilets. If toilets and sanitation and hygiene are more often talked about conditions for rural children will even more rapidly improve.”

The same UNICEF and WHO report estimates that in rural China, safe latrines are available to about half of the population.

“School children in China are badly in need to sanitary latrines. The problem is especially difficult for girls, as they often avoid going to school during their menstrual period,” Yang said.

A 2007 national survey by Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention showed that only 24% of schools had sanitary latrines.

A single gram of human faeces can contain 10 million viruses and 1 million bacteria. It also spreads diarrhoea, one of the leading causes of death for children under five, and intestinal worms, which contribute to malnutrition and hold back physical and mental growth.

“If we all start talking about toilets, give toilet a clean name, more children will enjoy a brighter and healthier future,” said Dr. Yang.