Line up for safer toilets on World Water Day

Monday, March 22, is World Water Day (WWD), a crucial moment in the fight against the global sanitation and water crisis that's killing 4000 children every single day.

As part of the WWD campaign, our friends at WaterAid Australia, in collaboration with Lift the Lid, are hosting the Melbourne event of The World’s Longest Toilet Queue.

The Queue is a global action that will see thousands of people across the world, from Sudan to Sweden, Brazil to Benin, gathering in front of giant toilets to demand real change and attempt to achieve a Guinness World Record.

Water and sanitation is a key area of work for Plan, and we have partnered with WaterAid on a number of projects, including in East Timor and Laos.

If you’re in Melbourne, please join us and WaterAid in the queue for just 10 minutes to show your support for the 2.5 billion people across the world who do not have access to a safe and dignified toilet.

To get involved, head down to River Terrace at Federation Square tomorrow (Saturday) at 11am.

Find out more about the World’s Longest Toilet Queue 

Find out more about World Water Day

Find out more about WaterAid

Plan’s work in water and sanitation

Plan works with communities to improve access to safe drinking water and to raise awareness of the importance of waste management.

More than 2,200,000 children die every year - that is four every minute - as a result of diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation and hygiene.

Every year Plan helps communities build 2000 school latrines and in the last three years has helped families and communities build an average of 100,000 toilets per year, benefiting several million people.

We also provide water points in communities and schools, especially in rural areas, and establish community-based organisations to ensure the continued management and maintenance of water points.

Radical approach

Billions of people lack access to basic sanitation and are forced to defecate out in the open, contaminating food and water supplies.

In Asia and East and Southern Africa, Plan is pioneering a radical new approach - Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), which educates communities about the importance of sanitation and helps them to construct and maintain their own latrines. They also gain the confidence to enforce a total ban on open defecation.

Learn more about Plan’s Community-Led Total Sanitation program

Plan in Australia runs a number of projects in Asia and Africa that focus on water and sanitation issues.

Find out more about our water work in East Timor

Find out more about our water work in Vietnam

Find out more about our water work in Laos

Find out more about our water work in Tanzania

A case study: Innovative water system improves lives in Kofèba, Mali

Kofèba, a village in the south-west of the west African country of Mali, receives poor rainfall – only 11 per cent of residents can obtain drinking water. And in Kofèba, water from traditional wells contaminated with salt has caused great suffering among the population. The infant and child mortality rates - estimated at 196 in every 1000 in 2007 - are mainly due to water-borne diseases such as dysentery and diarrhoea.         

Children in Kofèba also have to fetch water for their families on a daily basis, carrying heavy containers on their heads over long distances. As well as causing illness, this disrupts children’s education, giving rise to high repetition and dropout rates.

Plan Mali asked groups of children in the village to help come up with a development plan. All groups insisted something needed to be done about the lack of a safe drinking water supply.

So Plan helped Kofèba’s development committee install an innovative water supply system that is environmentally friendly: The Pedalflo system provides drinking water continuously to the entire population using solar energy or pedal power.

The children’s government decided where to the system should be installed and supervised the whole operation. Each day they report to the development committee.

Brehima, President of the children’s Government, said: “We were all tired by the endless water chores, especially the girls. Now our mothers can easily get safe drinking water, and we children no longer suffer. Even my friends, who didn’t have time before, now come and play football with us after evening classes.”

Many women explained how they and their children were in better health thanks to having safe drinking water, and being able to rest during the day.

M’Bamakan, a 27-year-old housewife, said: “This water source has given a new life to people in Kofèba. It’s very advantageous to have safe drinking water now because many women in the village have experienced miscarriages in the past due to the bad quality of water. I think that with such a structure, water diseases will disappear.”

Today, water-borne diseases have reduced by about 95 per cent according to the village matron. For the school’s headmaster, there is no doubt that the safe drinking water from Pedalflo has contributed to students’ improved attendance, concentration and achievement.

Village leaders also organised a water subscription to help pay for repairs if they are ever needed.