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What is the WTA?

world toilet association

World Toilet Association (WTA), Creating a Toilet Revolution

The World Toilet Association is an international organization dedicated to protecting lives through the improvement of sanitation via toilets. The Inaugural General Assembly held in Seoul, Korea on Nov. 22, 2007, hosted participants from 66 countries, including government officials in the fields of sanitation and public health, representatives from NGOs and other international organizations, and industry experts. They gathered to affirm the importance of toilets on humanity and discuss future plans for improving sanitation conditions throughout the world.

The World Toilet Association considers toilets to be essential to the proper disposal of waste and water management. With other international organizations, however, the subject of toilets is often eclipsed by broader social issues such as 'sanitation' or 'public health.' Considered a taboo topic in everyday parlance, toilets are typically alluded to, rather than referred to directly. By emphasizing the central and crucial role toilets play in daily life, proper sanitation, and hygiene, the WTA seeks to propel topic of toilets to the forefront.

Why WTA?

  • * A Key to Healthy Community

    International sanitation project typically focus on infectious diseases and drinking water, whereas excrement and sewage waste disposal hardly receive the same amount of attention. In order to focus attention on these problems, the WHO formally defined sanitation as "the means of collecting and disposing of excrete and community liquid wastes in a hygienic way so as not to endanger the health of individuals and the community as a whole" (WHO, 1987).

    Although this declaration created awareness about the link between toilet and hygiene, people must realize just how crucial the sanitary disposal of waste water is for both the health of the community and its dignity as well.

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  • * Preventing Infectious Diseases

    When the waste of people suffering from infectious diseases is disposed of in an unsanitary manner, the community's water supply also becomes contaminated. Sanitary waste disposal is one way to drastically reduce the instances of cholera, typhoid, paratyphoid, dysentery, diarrhea, schistosomiasis. 400,000 children under the age of 5 die each year from diarrheal diseases, one of the main causes of children deaths. In order to reduce this number, sanitation must be improved

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  • * Tackling poverty and inequality

    Proper sanitation and a healthy life is a luxury for the majority of the world population. According to the WHO, about 2.6 billion people (42% of the world population) lack access to basic sanitation. Due to this, more than 2 million people die each year from diseases associated with poor water and sanitation conditions. 90% of the people who lack safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities are the primary cause of infectious diseases and subsequent deaths.

    "Ensuring Environmental sustainability" is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Improving sanitation will be the key to upgrading the quality of life for people around the world.

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Mission Statement

For the humans' dignity and their healthy lives, let world know the importance of toilets to public health and sanitation, as well as establish advanced toilet culture and contribute to humanity.

  • Toilets are the key to sanitation
  • Toilets are a sanctuary for human life and dignity
  • All humans have a right to access adequate (Clean&Safe) toilet facilities
  • Children, the disabled, and the elderly must be able to access and use toilets equally
  • Future toilets must be eco-friendly in order to preserve the environment
  • Toilet provisions should add benefit to the lives of local residents and they must be able to consistently maintain these facilities

Catch phrase

화장실 혁명이 인류의 미래를 바꾼다.

Activities

  • Provide and improve toilet facilities in developing countries
  • Provide toilets at area of disaster occurrence
  • Establish technique standards of world toilet culture
  • Spread the importance of toilets through conferences, exhibitions, education & training program
  • Enhance partnerships with the UN, other international organizations, and NGOs
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