(MENAFN- Jordan Times) The UN has set apart many 'days' to commemorate events or a variety of issues.
One, less expected, is the 'World Toilet Day', which falls on November 19 each year.
In a world where 4.5 billion people live without 'safely managed sanitation', the day raises awareness about the global sanitation crisis.
Highlighting the variety of issues related to sanitation is not a frivolous endeavour when considering the serious implications of lack of it.
The right to clean water and sanitation for all is reaffirmed and became part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals — the 2015 SDGs include Goal 6, which hopes to ensure that everyone everywhere has access to toilets by 2030 — in view of its relevance to development and progress.
The 'narrow' issue of toilets is related to a variety of other, wider, matters that make possible the enjoyment of basic human rights.
Foremost are the issues of sanitation, clean water, accessibility to education, work, health and economic development.
In Jordan, the day, marked in Zaatari refugee camp as an event organised by OXFAM, intended to raise awareness to sanitation and hygiene.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had found, when examining periodic state reports of many developing countries, that lack of proper sanitation, especially for girls, has led to large numbers of school dropouts among them.
Closely entwined with proper toilet facilities is the right to clean water, which cannot be secured without adequate sanitation systems that prevent pollution and contamination.
In the Kingdom's schools, mostly public, but not exclusively, there is, unfortunately, not enough inspection of sanitation facilities that often leave a lot to be desired.
Moreover, public toilets are almost entirely absent from Jordanian cities.
The issue is serious and deserves serious attention. It is a matter of health as much as of civilisation and development.
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