User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Liberia

Public toilets in Liberia are typically free to use and include a mix of squat and sit toilets. Efforts have been underway to increase the number of public toilets. The lack of access to public toilets mirrors the general lack of access to toilets.

Public toilets
The local word for public toilet is Toilette. Public toilets are typically free, and include a mix of squat and sit toilets. They rarely have toilet paper.

On a per capita basis, WaterAid said in 2016 that the country was in the top ten for having the least number of safe and private toilets in urban areas. WaterAid also said that Liberia ranked in the top ten in the world for countries where public defecation was most common.

History
A not insignificant percentage of men and women from Sierra Leone and Liberia in refugee camps in the Forest Region of Guinea in 1999 believed sexually transmitted diseases could be contracted from using public toilets.

Public toilets in the 2000s often discharged into local water supplies, contaminating them and making them not available for drinking water. 75,000 residents of the Clara Town in 2009 had 11 public toilets and 22 public water taps. The situation was worse in West Point where 70,000 people shared four public toilets. There continued to only be four public toilets in West Point in 2013.

Rotary District 9101 District Governor Sunny Akoupha set a goal in March 2022 of building over 1,000 new public toilets between then and 2027. District 1190, which includes parts of Cumbria, Lancashire, Brampton and Longtown, offered to assist the Mali based project. The first twelve toilets scheduled to be constructed were to be built in Bamako. Others were planned for other cities in Mali, and in Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Ivory Coast.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Liberia
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. 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.

An issue in developing countries is toilet access in schools. Only 46% of schools in developing countries have them. Many schools around the world in 2018 did not have toilets, with the problem particularly acute in parts of Africa and Asia. Only one in five primary schools on earth had a toilet and only one in eight secondary schools had public toilets.

Public toilets, depending on their design, can be tools of social exclusion. 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. Across Africa, open defecation had social consequences. These included loss of dignity and privacy. It also put women at risk of sexual violence.