Safe toilets. Equal futures.
World Toilet Day 2026 is about sanitation and gender equality. The campaign ¨C ¡®Safe toilets. Equal futures.¡¯ ¨C shows how safe sanitation protects women and girls¡¯ health, safety, dignity and opportunity ¨C enabling them to go to school, work and fully take part in society.
How do toilets support gender equality?
With access to safe and secure toilets, alongside soap, water and menstrual hygiene facilities, girls can learn and women can earn.
In hospitals and clinics, sanitation and hygiene services protect women patients and health care workers, supporting better health outcomes for all.
In public spaces, from markets to transport hubs, toilets support women and girls¡¯ mobility, independence and participation.
How does the sanitation crisis affect women and girls?
There are 3.4 billion people living without access to safe sanitation, but not everyone faces the same impacts.
Lack of access to safe sanitation reinforces gender inequality by exposing women and girls to diseases, danger and abuse, affecting their rights to health, education and work.
Using unclean or broken toilets ¨C or having to go outside ¨C causes stigma and shame, affecting women and girls¡¯ self-confidence and security.
Climate change and extreme weather events are making the sanitation crisis worse in many areas ¨C and when services are disrupted, women and girls pay the heaviest price.
How can we ensure safe toilets mean equal futures?
Women must help shape sanitation solutions, working alongside men to design, manage and deliver services that work for everybody.
The participation of women, girls and other groups disproportionately affected by unsafe sanitation ¨C including older people, persons with disabilities, and gender-diverse people ¨C is essential to building resilient services that leave no one behind.
We must invest in gender-responsive sanitation and make toilets a force for equality that benefits everyone, everywhere, without discrimination.
What action will you take for World Toilet Day 2026?
Download resources and inspire action. Help raise awareness of the link between sanitation and gender equality.
Key messages for World Toilet Day 2026
- Sanitation is foundational to gender equality. Safe toilets protect women and girls¡¯ health, safety, dignity and opportunity ¨C enabling them to go to school, work and fully take part in society.
- The sanitation crisis affects everyone ¨C but not equally. Unsafe sanitation reinforces gender inequality by exposing women and girls to diseases, danger and abuse, affecting their rights to health, education and work.
- Safe sanitation is a universal human right. When sanitation services fail to meet the needs of half the people, entire communities are held back.
- Safe toilets mean equal futures. Women must help shape sanitation solutions to ensure services work for everybody ¨C making toilets a force for equality that benefits everyone, everywhere, without discrimination.
Did you know?
- 4 in 10 people (3.4 billion) worldwide still lack access to safe toilets. ()
- 1 in 5 people (1.7 billion) still do not have a place to wash their hands with soap and water at home. ()
- 1 in 5 adolescent girls (aged 10-19) have to share unhygienic toilets with other families or go out in the open. ()
- In 79 countries, women hold fewer than half of WASH positions in government jobs, and in 23 countries hold fewer than 1 in 10 positions. ()
- Fewer than 1 in 3 of schools globally have menstrual waste bins in girls¡¯ toilets. ()
Previous World Toilet Day themes
Explore the going back to 2014, covering a range of themes, including climate, wastewater, nature-based solutions, and peace.
