User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in the Cook Islands

Public toilets in the Cook Islands are few in number and not generally disability accessible. Public toilets are located in different places around the Cook Islands and are required to be connected to sewage systems if available.

Public toilets
Public toilets in the Cook Islands are generally not accessible to people with disabilities. Public Health Regulations 1987 (28/1987) requires that public toilets be connected to a sewage system if available, and to a septic tank if not available.

Public toilets in Aitutaki were located at the Orongo Center. Public toilets in downtown Avarua in early 2010s were very dirty. As a result, the local government announced plans to clean and upgrade them. There was a public toilet in Papaaroa in the 2010s, but it was closed for months in 2019. When the Are Pa Metua at the eastern end of the Punanga Nui Market opened in August 2022, it had remodeled public toilets. The toilets were designed to accommodate 700 users a day. Plans were announced in late 2021 for improvements to public infrastructure in Mangaia. This included improved public toilet facilities. Public toilets in Raratonga are located at Cooks Corner and the Punganga Niu Cultural Market.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in the Cook Islands
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 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.

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.

Homosexual American servicemen sometimes used public toilets in bigger cities in the Pacific during World War II as places to have trysts. 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.

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.