Jumoke Olasunkanmi
The United Nations (UN) has said the world is significantly off track in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) which calls for safe toilets and water for all by 2030.
It said this in a statement to mark the World Toilet Day on Sunday.
Established by the World Toilet Association in 2001, World Toilet Day is an initiative aimed at raising awareness and mobilising efforts to combat the global sanitation crisis affecting 3.5 billion people without access to safely managed sanitation.
“Right now, we are seriously off track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 6: safe toilets and water for all by 2030. Governments and institutions must be accountable for delivering on their promises. And every one of us must do what we can to help speed up progress,” noted the UN.
As the deadline for meeting SDG 6 is just less than 7 years, UN emphasised that it is imperative to accelerate action plans to help achieve the goal of safe toilets and water for everybody around the world.
“With just seven years left, the world has to work, on average, five times faster to meet the sanitation target of SDG 6 – safe toilets and water for all by 2030 – on time.”
UN data shows that 3.5 billion people still live without safe toilets, and 419 million practice ‘open defecation.’
“These unsanitary conditions promote the spread of diseases, resulting in the tragic loss of 1,000 children under the age of five every single day,” it noted.
The ‘toilet crisis’ is worsened by lack of access to clean water and basic WASH facilities which according to UN data, about 2 billion people do not have access to.
Unsafe waters, sanitation and hygiene consequently lead to the spread of chronic diseases like intestinal worms and cholera which is endemic in Nigeria and is responsible for the death of 1,000 children under five every day.
The UN further cautioned that if fast action is not taken to address these challenges, by 2030, 2 billion people will be without access to safe drinking water and 1.4 billion will lack basic hygiene facilities leaving 3 billion people without safe toilets.
