Having access to water and toilets – is actually a human right.

November 19, 2019 is World Toilet Day, and on this day, we pause and contemplate the fact that clean water and sanitation remains a pipe dream for billions of people around the world.

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6 offers a glimmer of hope to impoverished populations that still suffer to this day from lack of access to sanitary toilets. It is estimated that 785 million people worldwide have yet to have any access to basic water services. No access to drinking water usually means there is no running water at home, and open defecation is common.

To date, there are still 701 million globally that practice open defecation. The number of people who don’t have safely managed sanitation? A mind-bending 4.2 billion people. This is a scandal, no less, to the modernity that our current epoch attempts to paint.

Ultimately (and sadly), it is often up to NGOs to take the first steps that will provide the initial relief to underserved, or worse, forgotten populations and communities. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2019 succinctly points out that it is often the rural communities that suffer from having no running water and toilets. Water infrastructure, which should come first, is often sparse in rural areas.