November th is World Toilet Day! Did you know that almost . billion people across the globe suffer from not having access to toilets?
Inaccessibility to proper sanitation solutions means that many communities suffer from health problems, have stunted access to economic development and suffer from gender inequality as many woman and girls are forced to relieve themselves in the open. World Toilet Day, hosted by UN Water, aims to raise awareness of sanitation issues globally and help to highlight some of the good work that’s being done in this area that is helping to achieve Sustainable Development Goal . Engineers Without Borders Australia has a proud history of working in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector with the aim of providing communities with the basic services they need. Currently, EWB’s Sanitation in Challenging Environment’s project in Cambodia, aims to provide sanitation and toilet solutions to some of the % of Cambodians that live in areas affected by flooding, high groundwater, in challenging riverbank or floating housing conditions. This includes the story of Mr Chin, a local of the rural village of Reay Peay had never heard of the word ‘toilet’ before undertaking a workshop with EWB and it’s partners. Now, he’s the village champion and helping his neighbours construct effective and sustainable toilets. You can join in on World Toilet Day by supporting our annual bake-off! You and your organisation or chapter can participate by running a minute bake-off (as per the event guidelines). Teams are given a plain cake and sweets/icing to decorate it to something related to World Toilet day. The creations can then be used as a morning tea and gold coin donations donated to WaterAid who are a not for profit and do a lot of work globally in improving sanitation. Donate to the bake-off Support EWB&#;s work in sanitation by making a donation If you&#;re interested in our work in sanitation, you might also like to read about our ATEC* Biodigester Project. Image: EWB in partnership with Plan International are supporting the HCR youth group of young people that are constructing toilet bowls from scratch, including painting and selling them at the market in their own local community in Timor-Leste. Currently, all the toilet pans are imported from abroad so they are getting themselves out of unemployment as well as supporting the local economy.