Today is World Toilet Day, a day to celebrate the humble, yet vitally important, toilet and to raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis. Imagine life without a toilet, no toilets in your home or at work, no public toilets, no toilets anywhere.

Toilet Topics:
* The first toilet paper was developed in England in 1880, although it wasn’t until 1935 that toilet paper was advertised as ‘splinter free’!
* The first toilet cubicle in a public washroom is least likely to be used, therefore usually the cleanest.
* Each person uses an average of 57 sheets of toilet paper a day.
* Over 100,000 cotton buds are flushed every week in the Thames region alone
* Most toilets flush in the key of E flat.

Treat Your Toilet:
* With a little tender loving care you can keep your toilet in tip top condition.
* Give your toilet a quick inspection. Your toilet could be costing you hundreds of pounds in water bills each year. Newer toilets with an overflow pipe in the cistern which empties into the toilet bowl can leak water for months without the owner knowing. Check to see that the float inside the tank is working properly to be sure you’re not flushing money away unnecessarily.
* Treat your toilet to a water displacement device, such as a save a flush or a hippo to save water each time you flush. These are available for free from most sewerage companies. Or, for an easy, do it yourself option, fill an empty plastic bottle with water and place it in the cistern. You’ll save that amount of water with every flush.

19th November was declared ‘World Toilet Day’ in 2001 by 17 toilet associations around the world. Since then there has been established an annual World Toilet Summit and many other regional conferences.

Each toilet association has also engaged in many activities promoting clean toilets in their own respective country.

It’s hard to imagine life without something we take for granted, but this is the daily reality for 2.6 billion people – 40% of the world’s population.

Did you know?
One gram of faeces can contain 10 million viruses, one million bacteria, 1000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs.
The simple act of washing hands with soap and water after going to the toilet can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by over 40%.
Safe disposal of children’s faeces leads to a reduction of nearly 40% in childhood diarrhoea.

World Toilet Organization is a global non- profit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide.