November 19th is World Toilet Day. Sounds like a joke, but it's deadly serious. The number of people worldwide without access to a toilet -- no public restroom, no outhouse, no latrine, no smallest room -- is a whopping 2.6 billion. That's four out of ten people who have to use fields, river-banks, beaches, rubbish dumps or city streets. "Imagine life without a toilet. No toilets in your home or at work, no public toilets, no toilets anywhere. Imagine the mess. Imagine the disease.
"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 do not have access to adequate sanitation. That’s 2.6 billion people having to practice open defecation, urinating into rivers which lead to water borne diseases such as acute diarrhea, cholera and dysentery. Others resort to roadsides, buckets, plastic bags and open fields as their toilets. The eventual outcome -- deaths."
The things we take for granted are not to be. And while we all may want more, perhaps today is a day to remember what others do not have, and, with a national holiday almost upon us, truly give thanks for what we do.
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