World Toilet Day marks work in Pacific to provide ablution access Posted at 05:00 on 19 November, 2013 UTC The United Nations children’s charity organisation says it is trying to break down the taboo surrounding toilets and ablutions in the Pacific. UNICEF data shows about a third of Pacific Island people still lack access to toilets and the region’s sanitation specialist Marc Overmars says people shy away from discussing them. World Toilet Day has long been observed on November 19th but was made an official United Nations Day this year. Mr Overmars says in Kiribati and Solomon Islands open defecation is still common but a community-led approach is changing that. “Sanitation has been a taboo in the Pacific to talk about, maybe also elsewhere in the world, but the poo taboo is very hard to break through so this community-led total sanitation is really to really break through that taboo by really openly talking about defecation and they really indeed talk about faeces and faecal matter and affecting their health.” Marc Overmars says many people don’t know that open defecation spreads disease. News Content © Radio New Zealand International PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 06:25:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015