User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Sao Tome and Principe

Public toilets in Sao Tome and Principe

Public toilets
WaterAid said in 2016 that the country ranked in the top ten in the world for countries where public defecation was most common.

Women from Neves have been key drivers in policies around, implementation and installation of public toilets in São Tomé and Príncipe. Part of of their goals in trying to get more public toilets built was to decrease open defecation and reduce the spread of water-borne disease.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Tonga
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.

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.

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. In developing countries, girls are less likely to attend school once they hit puberty if their school does not have adequate hygiene facilities.

Flush toilets are often only found in affluent areas of developing countries.