World Toilet Day: loos need our love

They say there's a day for everything, and to the uninfirned, World Toilet Day may seem a step too far. But like mothers, fathers and other deserving beneficiaries of such "days", our porcelein friends are almost certainly the most taken-for-granted objects in our lives and it's all too easy to forget that in many parts of the world, this most basic of facilities is a rare luxury. Makes the frustration of queueing at the ladies' looks suddenly seem a whole less of a big deal, dosn't it?

World Toilet Day is here to remind us of the shocking fact that over 2.6 billion people lack any form of 'improved' sanitation; one-sixth of the world's population get their water from sources contaminated by human and animal faeces; half of all people in developing countries have an illness related to sanitation and water quality; and every six seconds, a child dies of diarrhoea. That's quite a sobering thought in an age where all these diseases are preventable - in many cases simply by ensuring that all communities have proper sanitation. Toilet Day reminds us that it's to us to make the point that human beings everywhere deserve better than this.

So let's try and give our loos some love, and remember that we're lucky to have them in our lives. For more information on what you can do to help the fight for global sanitation, visit World Toilet Organisation's site.

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