Dunny, water closet, loo, potty… call a toilet what you will, but be grateful for the fact you have access to a clean one, says UQ student Kristal Burry.
Driving her point home will be 100 decorated toilets adorning the Queen Street Mall on November 19 as part of World Toilet Day.
The UQ Master of Integrated Water Management student and Brisbane World Toilet Day event organiser said while the event was a chance to have a giggle, the cause behind it was serious.
“World Toilet Day is about raising awareness for those who lack access to sanitation,” Ms Burry said.
“Currently there are 2.6 billion people around the world (sadly the majority of whom are in developing countries) who lack access to basic latrines.”
In many countries, women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities were worst affected by lack of proper toilets, Ms Burry said, with diseases caused by lack of sanitation the second most common killer of children under five.
“Girls are often unable to go to school if there are no latrines for them to use at school. Women may be attacked and raped if they do not have somewhere safe to go,” she said.
“Families and communities with sanitation-related illness lose productive work or study time and spend continuous amounts of money on medication, but are often reinfected once the current infection passes.
“All of these impacts keep families and communities in a cycle of poverty.”
Ms Burry hoped World Toilet Day would inspire people to take action by supporting organisations, such as WaterAid Australia and the World Toilet Organisation, which were delivering sanitation to developing countries.
“If we wish to ‘make poverty history’, if we want to help reduce childhood mortality, then sanitation is the place to start, for without water and sanitation, we cannot achieve these goals,” she said.
The World Toilet Day event will be held on November 19 from 7am-5pm on Queen Street Mall and Radicliffe Place in Brisbane’s CBD, and will feature toilets decorated by local artists, architects and graphic designers.
Visitors can also view posters and a photo exhibition at the display area and talk to (event organisers and Integrated Water Management students) about sanitation.
For more information about the Brisbane World Toilet Day event or to lend your support, visit www.insanitation.org
Media: Tegan Taylor at UQ Communications (07 3365 2659)
.jpg)
