What is the longest you’ve had to wait to use a toilet? It’s a scenario that can quickly turn from distressing to desperate. Yet for billions of people around the world, it is a daily reality to live without a toilet at all. And it’s dangerous to community health.

World Toilet Day is a global observation recognized annually on November 19th. This is our opportunity to raise awareness of the need for global access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). This year, our theme is “Don’t Stall” to promote urgency in addressing some of the most dire global health challenges.

Despite encouraging advances to defeat diarrhea and other dangerous waterborne diseases, poor access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is responsible for almost half of diarrhea cases.

To defeat diarrheal disease, the need goes beyond toilets. We can’t stall to advance an integrated approach to the basic building blocks of child health:

• WASH infrastructure investment, because unclean water, sanitation, and hygiene can lead to serious health consequences like diarrhea, cholera, and dysentery.
• Climate-resilient approaches, because the effects of climate change exacerbate illness and put stress on the world’s sanitation systems, so we must address the health impacts of extreme weather events.
• Immunization, because, like toilet access, vaccines prevent disease, working together keep children healthy and happy.
• Gender equality, because gender-equitable families and health systems lead to better child health outcomes.
• Breastfeeding and nutrition: because healthy immune systems combat dangerous diseases.
• Oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc because they work best together to treat diarrhea when children fall ill.

Let’s act now, together: help us advocate to defeat diarrheal disease this World Toilet Day by promoting safer sanitation and other child health tools by tagging @DefeatDD on social media and using hashtags #WorldToiletDay and #DontStall.

On this World Toilet Day and always, may you never have to wait in a long toilet queue, and may no one suffer for lack of a toilet.