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World Toilet Day sheds light on poo taboo

Abigail Constantino | aconstantino@wtop.com

November 18, 2017, 5:35 AM

WASHINGTON — No one talks about it but everyone does it. On World Toilet Day, it’s time to shed the taboo on poo.

The United Nations observes Nov. 19 as a day of action to raise awareness about people who do not have access to a toilet.

In this Dec. 22, 2016 photo, a “bayakou”, or human waste cleaner, carries a sack filled with human waste to be hauled away and dumped before sunrise, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haitian waste cleaners take to the streets at night doing a miserable, indispensable job that creates such social scorn that few admit they do it at all. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
A waterless urinal, left, is shown next to standard urinals at the University of Michigan engineering building, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The waterless toilet is connected to a collection and filtration system which is part of a multi-state project researching the conversion of human urine into fertilizer. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
A waterless urinal, left, is shown next to standard urinals at the University of Michigan engineering building, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The waterless toilet is connected to a collection and filtration system which is part of a multistate project researching the conversion of human urine into fertilizer. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
In the photo taken Sunday, July 17, 2011, in the Korogocho slums of Nairobi, Kenya as a worker tries to unclog a pit latrine, before loading a cart and dumping the effluent from slum pit latrines into a local water course. On Tuesday July 19, 2011, at the AfricaSan Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced dlrs 42 million U.S. in grants to encourage innovation in the capture, storage and re-purposing of waste as a potential energy resource. About 1.5 million children are believed to die each year from disease contracted from bad sanitation and the Gates Foundation believes most of these deaths could be prevented with clean drinking water and improved hygiene. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)
In the photo taken Sunday, July 17, 2011, in the Korogocho slums of Nairobi, Kenya as a worker tries to unclog a pit latrine, before loading a cart and dumping the effluent from slum pit latrines into a local water course. On Tuesday July 19, 2011, at the AfricaSan Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, the Bill & amp; Melinda Gates Foundation announced dlrs 42 million U.S. in grants to encourage innovation in the capture, storage and re-purposing of waste as a potential energy resource. About 1.5 million children are believed to die each year from disease contracted from bad sanitation and the Gates Foundation believes most of these deaths could be prevented with clean drinking water and improved hygiene. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)
AP Photo/Khalil Senosi
In this photo taken Wednesday, March 29, 2017, a man walks out from a ladybird shaped public toilet in Beijing, China. Launched two years ago, a "toilet revolution" campaign calls for at least 34,000 new public bathrooms to be constructed in Beijing and 23,000 renovated by the end of this year. Authorities are also encouraging the installation of Western-style sit-down commodes rather than the more common squat toilets. Around 25 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) has already been spent on the program, according to the National Tourism Administration. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
In this photo taken Wednesday, March 29, 2017, a man walks out from a ladybird shaped public toilet in Beijing, China. Launched two years ago, a “toilet revolution” campaign calls for at least 34,000 new public bathrooms to be constructed in Beijing and 23,000 renovated by the end of this year. Authorities are also encouraging the installation of Western-style sit-down commodes rather than the more common squat toilets. Around 25 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) has already been spent on the program, according to the National Tourism Administration. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
An Indian woman holds a bucket and walks to relieve herself in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. U.N. figures show of India's 1.2 billion people, 665 million, mostly those in the countryside, don't have access to a private toilet or latrine, something taken for granted in developed nations. Some villages have public bathrooms, but many women avoid using them because they are usually in a state of disrepair and because men often hang around and harass the women. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
An Indian woman holds a bucket and walks to relieve herself in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. U.N. figures show of India’s 1.2 billion people, 665 million, mostly those in the countryside, don’t have access to a private toilet or latrine, something taken for granted in developed nations. Some villages have public bathrooms, but many women avoid using them because they are usually in a state of disrepair and because men often hang around and harass the women. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
AP Photo/Channi Anand
Kazuo Sumimiya, left, manager of a showroom of Lixil, the firm that owns Japan's toilet maker Inax, and Lixil PR person Shintaro Kaai stand near a toilet decorated with 72,000 pieces of crystal from Swarovski AG of Austria at the showroom in Tokyo Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. The toilet, valued at 10 million yen (US$128,000) by Lixil although it is not for sale, is on display until Dec. 28. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)
Kazuo Sumimiya, left, manager of a showroom of Lixil, the firm that owns Japan’s toilet maker Inax, and Lixil PR person Shintaro Kaai stand near a toilet decorated with 72,000 pieces of crystal from Swarovski AG of Austria at the showroom in Tokyo Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. The toilet, valued at 10 million yen (US$128,000) by Lixil although it is not for sale, is on display until Dec. 28. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)
AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa
Indian women walk holding tumblers they use to wash themselves after defecating in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. U.N. figures show of India's 1.2 billion people, 665 million, mostly those in the countryside, don't have access to a private toilet or latrine, something taken for granted in developed nations. Some villages have public bathrooms, but many women avoid using them because they are usually in a state of disrepair and because men often hang around and harass the women. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Indian women walk holding tumblers they use to wash themselves after defecating in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. U.N. figures show of India’s 1.2 billion people, 665 million, mostly those in the countryside, don’t have access to a private toilet or latrine, something taken for granted in developed nations. Some villages have public bathrooms, but many women avoid using them because they are usually in a state of disrepair and because men often hang around and harass the women. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
AP Photo/Channi Anand
Indians look at the low cost models of toilets that are on permanent display on the premises of the Environmental Sanitation Institute (ESI) on World Toilet Day in Ahmadabad, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. India is considered to have the world's worst sanitation record despite spending some $3 billion since 1986 on sanitation programs, according to government figures. Building toilets in rural India, where hundreds of millions are still defecating outdoors, will not be enough to improve public health, according to a study published last month. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
Indians look at the low cost models of toilets that are on permanent display on the premises of the Environmental Sanitation Institute (ESI) on World Toilet Day in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. India is considered to have the world’s worst sanitation record despite spending some $3 billion since 1986 on sanitation programs, according to government figures. Building toilets in rural India, where hundreds of millions are still defecating outdoors, will not be enough to improve public health, according to a study published last month. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
AP Photo/Ajit Solanki
An Indian woman walks in a field after relieving herself in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. U.N. figures show of India's 1.2 billion people, 665 million, mostly those in the countryside, don't have access to a private toilet or latrine, something taken for granted in developed nations. Some villages have public bathrooms, but many women avoid using them because they are usually in a state of disrepair and because men often hang around and harass the women. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
An Indian woman walks in a field after relieving herself in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. U.N. figures show of India’s 1.2 billion people, 665 million, mostly those in the countryside, don’t have access to a private toilet or latrine, something taken for granted in developed nations. Some villages have public bathrooms, but many women avoid using them because they are usually in a state of disrepair and because men often hang around and harass the women. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
AP Photo/Channi Anand
A Filipino woman demonstrates how to clean a toilet bowl at a poor community in Manila, Philippines as they mark World Toilet Day Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. The event aims to improve access to basic sanitation in deprived areas in the country. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A Filipino woman demonstrates how to clean a toilet bowl at a poor community in Manila, Philippines as they mark World Toilet Day Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. The event aims to improve access to basic sanitation in deprived areas in the country. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
AP Photo/Aaron Favila
An Indian woman walks after defecating on a railway track, on World Toilet Day in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19 2014. India is considered to have the world's worst sanitation record despite spending some $3 billion since 1986 on sanitation programs, according to government figures. Building toilets in rural India, where hundreds of millions are still defecating outdoors, will not be enough to improve public health, according to a study published last month. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
An Indian woman walks after defecating on a railway track, on World Toilet Day in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19 2014. India is considered to have the world’s worst sanitation record despite spending some $3 billion since 1986 on sanitation programs, according to government figures. Building toilets in rural India, where hundreds of millions are still defecating outdoors, will not be enough to improve public health, according to a study published last month. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
AP Photo/Anupam Nath
A worker cleans a public toilet in Beijing on World Toilet Day 2004, Friday Nov. 19, 2004. Beijing has been hosting the World Toilet Summit this week, a three-day international commode conference with a mission: the globalization of presentable latrines. China, known for fetid public toilets that often are little more than open trenches, has been eager to show off its advances while preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
A worker cleans a public toilet in Beijing on World Toilet Day 2004, Friday Nov. 19, 2004. Beijing has been hosting the World Toilet Summit this week, a three-day international commode conference with a mission: the globalization of presentable latrines. China, known for fetid public toilets that often are little more than open trenches, has been eager to show off its advances while preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
AP Photo/Greg Baker
Indian men carry containers with water and walk to defecate in the open in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 30, 2015. Toilets are taken for granted in the industrialized West, but still are a luxury for a third of the world’s people who have no access to them, according to a report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF released Tuesday. India is by far the worst culprit, with more than 640 million people defecating in the open, and not necessarily due to a lack of facilities. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal
South Koreans walk past toilets which shaped like a giant soccer ball near the World Cup soccer stadium in Suwon, south of Seoul, Friday, Nov. 17, 2006. Some 2 million people die each year _ including 4,500 children a day _ due to the poor hygiene stemming from the absence of proper restrooms, a problem faced by 40 percent of the world's population, the WTA said, citing statistics from the World Health Organization. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)
South Koreans walk past toilets which shaped like a giant soccer ball near the World Cup soccer stadium in Suwon, south of Seoul, Friday, Nov. 17, 2006. Some 2 million people die each year _ including 4,500 children a day _ due to the poor hygiene stemming from the absence of proper restrooms, a problem faced by 40 percent of the world’s population, the WTA said, citing statistics from the World Health Organization. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)
AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man
An Indian girl holds a can filled with water and waits for a train to pass as she walks to defecate in the open in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, June 30, 2015. Toilets are taken for granted in the industrialized West, but still are a luxury for a third of the world’s people who have no access to them, according to a report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF released Tuesday. India is by far the worst culprit, with more than 640 million people defecating in the open, and not necessarily due to a lack of facilities. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade
An Indian man defecates on the banks of the River Yamuna in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 30, 2015. Toilets are taken for granted in the industrialized West, but still are a luxury for a third of the world’s people who have no access to them, according to a report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF released Tuesday. India is by far the worst culprit, with more than 640 million people defecating in the open, and not necessarily due to a lack of facilities. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal
FILE- In this Nov. 19, 2015 file photo, a temporary toilet made by farmers for their use is seen near the River Yamuna in New Delhi, India. The World Bank has approved a $1.5 billion loan for a sanitation program in India, where millions of people have no access to toilets. The bank said in a statement Wednesday that the loan will be used to support government efforts to provide toilets in villages and end the practice of open defecation by 2019. More than 500 million Indians, especially in rural areas, continue to defecate in the open, despite efforts to encourage people to change their habits. (AP Photo /Tsering Topgyal, file)
AP Photo /Tsering Topgyal, file
File — In this May 24, 2006 file photo, frozen human waste from honey buckets litter the frozen Newtok River, in Newtok, Alaska. It’s a good bet that President Barack Obama, like most Americans, has never used a honey bucket. The five-gallon drums serve as rudimentary toilets in large swathes of rural Alaska, where residents haul the waste-filled buckets to nearby sewage lagoons to be emptied. Obama’s historic visit to the Alaska Arctic on Wednesday will shed a rare spotlight on the plight of Alaska Natives and others who populate more than 200 far-flung villages in Alaska, toiling under third-world conditions unimaginable in most of the United States. (AP Photo/Al Grillo, File)
AP Photo/Al Grillo, File
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A waterless urinal, left, is shown next to standard urinals at the University of Michigan engineering building, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The waterless toilet is connected to a collection and filtration system which is part of a multi-state project researching the conversion of human urine into fertilizer. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
In the photo taken Sunday, July 17, 2011, in the Korogocho slums of Nairobi, Kenya as a worker tries to unclog a pit latrine, before loading a cart and dumping the effluent from slum pit latrines into a local water course. On Tuesday July 19, 2011, at the AfricaSan Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced dlrs 42 million U.S. in grants to encourage innovation in the capture, storage and re-purposing of waste as a potential energy resource. About 1.5 million children are believed to die each year from disease contracted from bad sanitation and the Gates Foundation believes most of these deaths could be prevented with clean drinking water and improved hygiene. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)
In this photo taken Wednesday, March 29, 2017, a man walks out from a ladybird shaped public toilet in Beijing, China. Launched two years ago, a "toilet revolution" campaign calls for at least 34,000 new public bathrooms to be constructed in Beijing and 23,000 renovated by the end of this year. Authorities are also encouraging the installation of Western-style sit-down commodes rather than the more common squat toilets. Around 25 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) has already been spent on the program, according to the National Tourism Administration. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
An Indian woman holds a bucket and walks to relieve herself in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. U.N. figures show of India's 1.2 billion people, 665 million, mostly those in the countryside, don't have access to a private toilet or latrine, something taken for granted in developed nations. Some villages have public bathrooms, but many women avoid using them because they are usually in a state of disrepair and because men often hang around and harass the women. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Kazuo Sumimiya, left, manager of a showroom of Lixil, the firm that owns Japan's toilet maker Inax, and Lixil PR person Shintaro Kaai stand near a toilet decorated with 72,000 pieces of crystal from Swarovski AG of Austria at the showroom in Tokyo Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. The toilet, valued at 10 million yen (US$128,000) by Lixil although it is not for sale, is on display until Dec. 28. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)
Indian women walk holding tumblers they use to wash themselves after defecating in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. U.N. figures show of India's 1.2 billion people, 665 million, mostly those in the countryside, don't have access to a private toilet or latrine, something taken for granted in developed nations. Some villages have public bathrooms, but many women avoid using them because they are usually in a state of disrepair and because men often hang around and harass the women. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Indians look at the low cost models of toilets that are on permanent display on the premises of the Environmental Sanitation Institute (ESI) on World Toilet Day in Ahmadabad, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. India is considered to have the world's worst sanitation record despite spending some $3 billion since 1986 on sanitation programs, according to government figures. Building toilets in rural India, where hundreds of millions are still defecating outdoors, will not be enough to improve public health, according to a study published last month. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
An Indian woman walks in a field after relieving herself in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. U.N. figures show of India's 1.2 billion people, 665 million, mostly those in the countryside, don't have access to a private toilet or latrine, something taken for granted in developed nations. Some villages have public bathrooms, but many women avoid using them because they are usually in a state of disrepair and because men often hang around and harass the women. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
A Filipino woman demonstrates how to clean a toilet bowl at a poor community in Manila, Philippines as they mark World Toilet Day Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. The event aims to improve access to basic sanitation in deprived areas in the country. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
An Indian woman walks after defecating on a railway track, on World Toilet Day in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, Nov. 19 2014. India is considered to have the world's worst sanitation record despite spending some $3 billion since 1986 on sanitation programs, according to government figures. Building toilets in rural India, where hundreds of millions are still defecating outdoors, will not be enough to improve public health, according to a study published last month. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
A worker cleans a public toilet in Beijing on World Toilet Day 2004, Friday Nov. 19, 2004. Beijing has been hosting the World Toilet Summit this week, a three-day international commode conference with a mission: the globalization of presentable latrines. China, known for fetid public toilets that often are little more than open trenches, has been eager to show off its advances while preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
South Koreans walk past toilets which shaped like a giant soccer ball near the World Cup soccer stadium in Suwon, south of Seoul, Friday, Nov. 17, 2006. Some 2 million people die each year _ including 4,500 children a day _ due to the poor hygiene stemming from the absence of proper restrooms, a problem faced by 40 percent of the world's population, the WTA said, citing statistics from the World Health Organization. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

The U.N. recognizes access to water and sanitation as a human right. One of its sustainable development goals by 2030 is for people worldwide to have access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene and end open defecation.

According to a UNICEF-WHO report, some 60 percent of the global population — or 4.5 billion people — either have no toilet at home or do not have a toilet that safely manages human waste. The report also found that 869 million people worldwide practice open defecation and have no toilet facility at all.

Women and children experience a significant impact when they do not have access to toilets or proper sanitation. The World Toilet Organization states that in 2013, 1,000 children per day died from diarrhoeal diseases related to poor sanitation; and lack of access to clean and safe toilets keep more girls out of school.

A 2015 study on sanitation stressors faced by women in India listed peeping or spying by men and rape or sexual assault as concerns they have, especially in relation to open defecation.

The study found that women experience infrastructure and physical barriers, such as bad weather, encountering animals, darkness, lack of space and distance of the toilet. Other stressors include social stigma and cultural beliefs, which includes encountering ghosts.

The Right to Pee campaign is made up of some 30 nongovernmental organizations in Mumbai, India, that started because men in the city do not have to pay to use urinals, but women are charged a fee just to pee, according to a New York Times article.

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For those who have access to community or public toilets in poor or developing countries, these facilities may not be maintained. In February, The Guardian reported that three people died when a public toilet in a slum in eastern Mumbai collapsed.

Resolving people’s access to toilets and sanitation goes hand-in-hand with improving access to clean water. However, there are some technological innovations that hope to alleviate sanitation’s reliance on water. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $710,000 to a waterless toilet system. And, The Huffington Post reported that in Kenya, a company installed toilets that use sawdust instead of water to cover up waste and then turns the waste into fertilizer.

Abigail Constantino

Abigail Constantino started her journalism career writing for a local newspaper in Fairfax County, Virginia. She is a graduate of American University and The George Washington University.

aconstantino@wtop.com

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