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Stand up for those who can’t sit down

Photo: Peter Foley/UN Water The ‘Sanitation is Dignity’ exhibition and a long queue for the portable toilet symbolized what life would be like if we all had no place to go.

Photo: Peter Foley/UN Water The signs educated on the global sanitation crisis, one of the them read: Globally 2 out of 5 people do not have a basic toilet.

Photo: Peter Foley/UN Water The event aimed to contribute to breaking the taboo of talking about toilets similarly as the HIV/AIDS campaigns struggled decades ago.

New York - There are 2.6 billion people around the world without access to toilet – and 5,000 children die every day because they don’t have access to decent toilet and clean water. The UN Water partners – including the UNDP, UNICEF, and other UN and non-governmental partners – advocate for solutions to the ‘silent’ global crisis in sanitation.

As Olav Kjorven, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of Policy for the United Nations Development Programme, put it: “We now need to make the same progress on sanitation because it is critical for human development, and being ‘polite’ means that 5,000 children around the world will continue to die from diarrhea each day because they don’t have access to a decent toilet and clean water, which go hand in hand. That’s like ten jumbo jets full of children crashing every day.”

The exhibition at Columbus Circle, by the south-west corner of the Central Park, featured an international art installation from the German Toilet Organization. Thought-provoking statues and a portable toilet was on display to draw the attention of New Yorkers and the tourists to the crisis in sanitation.

 

More information on World Water Day

Download pictures of the event:
Picture 1 | Picture 2 | Picture 3