2026 Messages
Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-Water Chair's message
The global sanitation crisis affects everyone ¨C but not equally.
For women and girls, it is deeply personal and often dangerous.
3.4 billion people ¨C half of them women and girls ¨C still live without safe toilets.
Using unclean or failing sanitation services ¨C or having no toilet at all ¨C exposes them to disease, violence and abuse and prevents them from safely managing menstruation.
This negatively impacts women and girls¡¯ rights to health, education and work, deepening gender inequality.
World Toilet Day 2026 is about sanitation¡¯s foundational role in gender equality.
Safe and secure toilets, alongside soap, water and menstrual hygiene facilities, can empower girls to learn and women to earn ¨C driving more equitable progress across the whole community.
Put simply, safe toilets mean equal futures.
Women¡¯s voices and agency must shape the path ahead, as we work tirelessly to ensure services work for everybody and no-one is left behind.
Together we can make toilets a force for equality that benefits everyone, everywhere, without discrimination.
Alvaro Lario
Chair of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-Water and President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Put simply, safe toilets mean equal futures. Women¡¯s voices and agency must shape the path ahead, as we work tirelessly to ensure services work for everybody and no-one is left behind.
Alvaro Lario
