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World Toilet Day 2018: Five Stark Facts About Sanitation

Every year, November 19 is celebrated as the World Toilet Day to tackle the problem of open defecation across the globe. The idea of dedicating a day to toilets came to Jack Sim, Singaporean businessman in 2001, reason being, loss of lives and money due to poor sanitation. Since then, every year, the day is celebrated with a unique theme and this year the theme is 'When nature calls, we have to listen and act.' The theme urges people to use toilets, especially nature-based sanitation solutions like composting toilets that treat human waste and convert it into fertilisers.

According to UNICEF, today, 1 in 7 people or 946 million people, practice open defecation.

UNICEF says, 9 out of 10 people who practice open defecation live in rural areas.

India has the largest number of people still defecating in the open. To be precise, more than 564 million: UNICEF.

India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Pakistan alone account for 75 per cent of open defecation in the World.

UNICEF: Globally, 2.4 billion people do not use improved sanitation facilities, an amenity that separates human waste from human contact.