User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Kiribati

Public toilets in Kiribati are often community toilet blocks. They are often in a poor state of repair. The lack of public toilets coupled with the lack of toilets in private residences means Kiribati ranks among the top countries in the world where open defecation is practiced.

Public toilets
Community toilet blocks are common, in lieu of toilets installed in the home. Composting toilets and septic tanks began to be more widely used in Kiribati in the 1990s, which spurred the growth of public toilet installation, but local councils rarely maintained these facilities and the underlying infrastructure. Betio, Bairiki, and Bikenibeau on South Tarawa are examples of towns with community toilet blocks. They are connected to a reticulated sewer systems installed in 1993. Because the system was designed for use by 9000 people and it has not been maintained, the community toilets are prone to blockages. At the same time, the local councils do not maintain their public toilets and the public toilets are prone to vandalism. Pit latrines are one of the most common type of public toilet. WaterAid said in 2016 that the country ranked in the top ten in the world for countries where open defecation was most common.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Kiribati
Public toilets, depending on their design, can be tools of social exclusion. Around one in three women in the world in 2016 lacked access to a toilet. In developing countries, unisex public toilets have been a disaster because they make women feel unsafe and fail to consider local religious beliefs. The lack of single-sex women's toilets in developing countries makes it harder for women to participate in public life, in education and in the workplace. An issue in developing countries is toilet access in schools. Only 46% of schools in developing countries have them.

Public toilet access around the world is most acute in the Global South, with around 3.6 billion people, 40% of the world's total population, lacking access to any toilet facilities. 2.3 people in the the Global South do not have toilet facilities in their residence. Despite the fact that the United Nation made a declaration in 2010 that clean water and sanitation is a human right, little has been done in many places towards addressing this on a wider level. Around 2.5 billion people around the world in 2018 did not have access to adequate toilet facilities. Around 4.5 billion people lacked access to proper sanitation.

Foreigners visiting the South Pacific in the 1990s were advised to bring their own white toilet paper, and tampons or sanitary napkins as they were not commonly found in the region. Septic systems and any sewage systems were not strong enough in the 1990s for tampons to be thrown into them.

Western style sit toilets are more popular among the emerging middle and upper class around the world.