ON World Toilet Day, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) implores the government to urgently ensure access to the universal human right to hygienic and dignified sanitation services including access to decent toilets.
World Toilet Day, was declared by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly as an official UN day in 2013, as a day set aside to raise awareness of people living without access to safely managed sanitation and is now a symbol of the global fight for dignified and safe sanitation.
Access to safe sanitation, which is an essential service that often goes overlooked, is not only a matter of convenience but is a cornerstone of social and economic development.
Sanitation for peace is the theme for World Toilet Day in 2024, a day which is commemorated annually on 19 November. The day, underscores the critical need to make toilets more than just a convenient facility but a space of peace, security and dignity for communities.
The right to sanitation entitles everyone to have physical and affordable access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, that is safe, hygienic, secure, and socially and culturally acceptable and that provides privacy and ensures dignity. Access to water supply and sanitation is a human right and a central element for poverty reduction and improved well-being of people.
While Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2 seeks to ensure access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030, over 3.5 billion people worldwide, according to the UN, are denied the basic necessity of using a toilet and still lack access to this vital facility, which threatens health, human dignity, safety, privacy and progress and contributes to the contamination of soil and some water sources.
The health risks associated with poor sanitation are well documented in Zimbabwe, which is grappling with a significant sanitation crisis as the absence of safe toilets has had severe public health consequences, resulting in the spread of deadly medieval diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever, which affect the most vulnerable segments of society.
The continued outbreaks of cholera in Zimbabwe reflect a broader national crisis, which disproportionately affects vulnerable communities, particularly women, children, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and some disadvantaged people.
Across the country, ZLHR is disheartened by the deplorable state and conditions of public toilets, which expose users to highly inhumane conditions, which strip them of their basic human dignity.
The net effect of the conditions obtaining at public toilets violates people’s right to human dignity as guaranteed in section 51 of the Constitution and violates people’s right not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment as guaranteed in section 53 of the Constitution.
Shockingly, some local authorities are notorious for levying a so-called tissue “fee” for users while those who cannot pay the levy are turned away and denied access to toilets.
Such conduct by local authorities is not only a breach of people’s right to dignity and the right not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment but also leads to the pollution of the ecosystem.
ZLHR reminds local authorities that in terms of the provisions of the Urban Councils Act, they have a legal obligation to provide decent public toilets in areas under their jurisdiction.
To ensure sanitation for peace and to make toilets a place for peace, ZLHR implores local and central government and other critical stakeholders to;
- Ensure that everyone has access to safe, secure and dignified sanitation services regardless of circumstances;
- Progressively allocate funds in the national budget necessary for combating sanitation deficiencies;
- Invest in durable sanitation infrastructure and good governance and foster a sense of safety and dignity for users of toilets;
- Attend to repairing, installing, and fixing the flushing, sewer, and water systems of public toilets across the country;
- Immediately cease the practice of demanding the production of tissues or payment of a “tissue fee” from members of the public.
ENDS
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
Kodzero/Amalungelo House
No. 103 Sam Nujoma Street, Harare, Zimbabwe
