User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Timor-Leste

Public toilets in Timor-Leste are few and are managed by the Directorate of National Water and Sanitation Services. Schools and tourism infrastructure both lacked public toilets.

Public toilets
Public toilets were managed by the Directorate of National Water and Sanitation Services. The Water Supply and Sanitation Investment Project in the early 2020s financed the building of 12 public toilets, in addition to improving  water supply facilities and sanitation services.

Tourism infrastructure was sometimes built, but without building public toilets and generally disregarding other basic infrastructure needs.

Many schools did not have toilets for student use. Outside of school, students also often had few other toilet options. The few public toilets that did exist were not open 24 hours a day. As a result, students often engaged in open defecation in nearby fields.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Timor-Leste
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 675 million people in South Asia practiced open defecation in 2016. This was more than any other region in the world.

Public toilets, depending on their design, can be tools of social exclusion. Public toilet access has been used intentionally in South Asia to exclude certain segments of the population from participating in public life. Around one in three women in the world in 2016 lacked access to a toilet. 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.

In the 1980s and 1990s, many people in the Pacific region had the misconception that HIV and AIDS could be transmitted by using public toilets.

Across Southeast Asia in places where Western style flush toilets are found, many do not have toilet seats. These toilets may also not automatically flush, requiring manual flushing.