Did you know that mobile phones are more readily available globally than toilets are?
World Toilet Day, observed annually on 19 November, aims to inspire action to address the global sanitation crisis and support the achievement of SDG 6, ensuring sanitation for all by 2030.
According to UNICEF and the WHO, around 3.4 billion people around the world continue to have inadequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene. Everyone agrees that having access to clean water and sanitation should be a basic human right, yet governments around the world still struggle with the issue. Even in Australia, 24% of the population lack access to safely managed sanitation, particularly in remote Indigenous communities.
Why is this? According to the UN, discussing toilets is often seen as taboo, and it’s time for that to change. Poor sanitation pollutes drinking water, rivers, beaches, and food crops, spreading dangerous diseases. Without toilets, there is no sustainable future, and governments must work in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to ensure that everyone has access to sanitary toilets by 2030. It is the responsibility of the public and private sectors to collaborate with underprivileged communities to develop sustainable sanitation solutions.
Sanitation facts for World Toilet Day
To help safeguard and maintain health security, everyone needs sustainable sanitation, clean water, and handwashing facilities. The theme of World Toilet Day, falling on 19 November 2025, is “We’ll Always Need the Toilet,” highlights the urgent need to protect and expand access to safe sanitation amid growing challenges such as ageing infrastructure, increasing demand, insufficient investment, and the escalating impacts of climate change.
Here are some facts you probably didn’t know:
- Around 3.4 billion people still lack safely managed sanitation.
- Over 2.2 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water, including 115 million who rely on surface water for their daily needs.
- Toilets have added 20 years to the average human life over the last 200 years.
- Globally, 22% of schools lack access to basic sanitation facilities, undermining students’ learning, dignity, and attendance with girls being disproportionately affected.
- Over 1,000 children under the age of 5 die from diarrhoea every day caused by contaminated water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene.
- Nearly 44% of household wastewater worldwide goes untreated, posing serious risks to both human health and the environment.
- 354 million people living primarily in rural areas continue to defecate in public/open, such as in sewers, behind bushes, or in open water bodies.
- It’s estimated that at least 10% of the world’s population consumes food irrigated by wastewater.
- An individual spends 1 hour and 42 minutes every week on the toilet, approximately 92 days in a lifetime.
- Safe sanitation, hygienic practices, and a reliable water source can save the lives of nearly 350,000 children each year.
- Only 58% of the world’s population has access to safely managed sanitation, meaning they use an improved, private toilet where waste is either safely treated on-site or properly transported and processed elsewhere.
- By 2050, floods could threaten sanitation systems for 1.6 billion people, while up to 3.2 billion may live in areas of extreme water scarcity, putting safe and reliable sanitation further out of reach for many.
- The UN has set a goal to ensure that everyone has access to a household toilet by 2030.
- Every dollar invested in water and sanitation globally leads to a $4.30 to $4.50 return in the form of lower healthcare expenses globally.
Australia's role in promoting clean water and sanitation
So what role is Australia playing in this context? We can look at DFAT’s partnerships and funding for water initiatives in the Pacific, but as mentioned above, there are still parts of Australia that lack access to reliable drinking water and satisfactory sanitation. According to research by the Australian National University (ANU), more than 400 regional communities lack access to good-quality drinking water, with 8% not included at all in reporting on the issue. The suggestion is to create a coordinated national water database to support a newly established National Water Commission, after the last one was abolished in 2014.
Then there are the domestic issues that affect water sources around Australia, rising from industrial pollution and other practices such as irrigation. On a smaller scale the individual choices we make also have a bearing on the provision of adequate sanitation; take the fatbergs that have resulted from supposedly flushable wipes.
COS as a Sustainable Supplier
From the top down, we at COS aim to be a supplier that operates according to best practices with regards to the environment. In the spirit of World Toilet Day, if your business is looking for eco-friendly toilet rolls, toilet roll dispensers, or any other planet-friendly goods, check out our extensive range of cleaning supplies.
