Deputy Secretary-General, in Video Message on World Toilet Day, Urges Sanitation for All, Calls to End Open Defecation

Following is the text of Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s video message to the European Parliament on the occasion of World Toilet Day, today:

I thank Catherine Bearder for giving me the opportunity to contribute to WaterAid’s and Unilever’s important event in Brussels on World Toilet Day.  It is a pleasure and an honour for me to join you today.  I thank you for your engagement and commitment to a life in dignity for all.

This morning, 1.8 billion people woke up with no choice but to drink water contaminated by human waste.  A billion people will have to defecate in the open — in gutters, behind bushes, in rivers or ponds.

The United Nations has designated 19 November World Toilet Day.  If we want to eradicate poverty and ensure decent sanitation for all, then we have to start talking, openly and widely, about toilets and open defecation.

There can be no gender equality where women face daily harassment, abuse and violence when looking for somewhere to urinate or defecate.  We cannot eliminate malnutrition where people still suffer from persistent diarrhoea and intestinal worms.  We cannot educate children when they are too sick to go to school and when girls drop out once they begin menstruation.

The EU [European Union], both as an institution and through its member States, continues to provide the largest global share of development aid.  For this we are deeply grateful.  You, as parliamentarians, as NGOs [non-governmental organizations], as citizens, play a key role in the design and oversight of these aid programmes.  We simply must improve access to sanitation.

Inadequate sanitation costs the world $260 billion a year through death, ill health and loss of productivity.  Lack of sanitation is one of the main causes for diarrhoeal diseases of young children.  Diarrhoea kills a child every minute.  These are the horrible costs of poor sanitation – not sufficiently known or reported in the media and rarely the subject of public debate.

The private sector can make significant contributions to the improvement of sanitation.  It also makes good business sense at all levels, as there are millions of human beings in desperate need of sanitation.

We must break the silence and the taboos on sanitation and open defecation.  Since my very first days of working for the United Nations, in refugee camps and in countries where open defecation is practised, I have seen children die from diseases that could have been prevented with adequate sanitation.  This is unacceptable and must come to an end.

For these reasons, I have, since last year, on behalf of the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, spearheaded a campaign to end open defecation and achieve universal access to decent sanitation.  This effort is part of the acceleration of the Millennium Development Goals, where the sanitation goal has been among the most behind schedule.

Governments across the developing world growingly recognize the challenge.  I have been heartened to see the priority many UN Member States have placed on water, sanitation and hygiene for the new set of sustainable development goals to be adopted by the UN General Assembly in September next year.

Today I ask you to join me and speak up on sanitation.  Let us bring the sanitation challenge out of the shadows, face it head-on and work together towards an end to open defecation and substantially better access to sanitation.

Today is an opportunity to make visible one of our most important but least known tools in the fight against preventable deaths — the toilet.  Let us give it the celebration it deserves.  It is saving lives and preserving human dignity.

Thank you.