Sanitation is foundational to gender equality
Safe toilets protect the health, safety and dignity of women and girls, and let them go to school, work and take part in society.
Thursday 19 November 2026
World Toilet Day 2026Safe toilets.
Equal futures.
Every year on 19 November the world calls for safe toilets for everyone. The 2026 campaign, coordinated by UN-Water, links sanitation to gender equality: safe toilets protect the health, safety and dignity of women and girls.
3.4 billion
people still live without a safe toilet (WHO/UNICEF, 2025)
354 million
people still practise open defecation (WHO/UNICEF, 2025)
1,000
children under 5 die every day from unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (WHO, 2023)
Theme 2026
Why it matters
The crisis affects everyone, but not equally
Unsafe sanitation exposes women and girls to disease, danger and abuse, and limits their right to health, education and work.
Safe sanitation is a human right
When services fail the needs of half the population, entire communities are held back.
Safe toilets mean equal futures
Women must help shape sanitation solutions so that services work for everybody.
What is a safe toilet?
A safe toilet, or ‘safely managed sanitation’, is a toilet that is not shared with other households and where the waste is treated on site, or stored and taken away for treatment, or carried through a sewer and treated elsewhere (WHO/UNICEF).
World Toilet Day in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, World Toilet Day is promoted by a working group of organisations, including the Red Cross, Humana, Simavi, Serious Request, Radio Veronica and Geberit. The secretariat is supported by 123Toilet, a wholesaler of hygiene and cleaning products in Uithoorn.
This website, in Dutch, offers background information, logos and banners for organisations that want to take part, and a way to register your own initiative.
Materials from the United Nations
UN-Water coordinates World Toilet Day. The 2026 campaign materials (in English) include an activation kit, a factsheet, posters and a social media kit.
Campaign resources (UN) · UN-Water · WHO/UNICEF JMP (2023 report)
Contact
Questions or interested in working together? Write to info@wereldtoiletdag.nl