Toilet humour highlights global sanitation crisis

Published on Thursday 20 November 2008 09:09

A GROUP of students taped up toilets in Edinburgh yesterday to mark World Toilet Day.

The local campaigners for the national group Water Aid put up temporary "no access" tape across several loos on university grounds, as a way of drawing people's attention to what life would be like without a toilet.

They also collected donations and handed out flyers at Edinburgh Waverley to highlight a global sanitation crisis.

An estimated 2.5 billion people – 40 per cent of the world's population – do not have access to a toilet and this, combined with lack of access to clean water and sanitation, causes 5000 deaths every day worldwide.

WaterAid is an international charity that works in developing countries helping communities gain access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene education.

Maxine Carr, a member of the Edinburgh Campaigns group, said: "We are hoping to raise greater awareness of these issues to the people of Edinburgh. "It is difficult for us to imagine what life might be like without toilets, which is why we had the idea about taping over the toilet doors in the university.

"We didn't stop anyone from using the toilets, but for two-fifths of the world's population this is a reality – they have nowhere to go."