It is the most wonderful time of the year! November 19th is World Toilet Day, and we hope you'll celebrate with us or others.
This year, UN-Water has deemed the holiday's theme as: Making the invisible visible. Did you know that, when unman
aged and uncontained, poo in nature will always end up in a waterway? Sometimes, that includes underground water, which can make our wells dirty.
There are many virtual and in-person World Toilet Day celebrations globally. Below we are sharing a few different celebrations in which you can participate. Check out our list of ways to have your own World Toilet Day celebrations online.
Events:
Before Nov 19th
ONLINE: Live in Africa and have an exciting new toilet design to share? Wiwas and the African Population Health Research Center are hosting a competition for the Toilet of the Year Awards. The submission deadline is November 14th - learn more about it in their announcement post.
ONLINE: Check out Toilet Twinning's page where, before the big day, they're having an online fundraising competition called #TheBigSquat! They also have some fun resources like soggy-bottom baking recipes, chicken poo bingo, and other fun kits.
ONLINE: The Water Research Commission is hosting a webinar where diverse WASH professionals share their experiences working in toilets. Register for this event on November 17th at 10am South African Standard Time.
ONLINE: Triangle Environment and Duke WASH Aid are hosting a Photo Contest for the special day! Submit your toilet photos by November 18th to be included in the running - details on Twitter.
Nov 19th
ONLINE: We partnered with Global Water Partnership-Caribbean again for the special day to reboot our two short, fun courses for Caribbean kids (ages 7-16) on Nov 19th. Help your kids learn about toilets and the environment! (Applicants are due Nov 12th at 4:00 p.m. AST)
IN-PERSON (US): Our friends at The POOP Project are co-hosting a comedy night in Washington, DC at 4pm EST, called Loo Aid! Join them with Griefcat and Throne to fundraise for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.
IN-PERSON (NZ): Live near Dunedin and interested in public toilets? The NZ LooLady and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga will be at Manor Place Toilets 10am-1pm NZT. During the day, they will gather memories of the historic toilets & ideas for the building's future.
IN-PERSON (IT): There's an artists' exhibition from 11am-6pm CEST in honor of the big day in Milan! Can someone please share pictures with us afterward?
IN-PERSON (US): If you're in NYC, nonprofit IDA is hosting a "Support-A-Potty" event to honor the day. Learn more about it and sign up here.
After Nov 19th
ONLINE: Brazil's Water and Sanitation Institute is hosting a bunch of events for the day on November 23rd & 24th. Check it out - it's all in Portuguese.
ONLINE: Join us on December 1st @ 7pm EST for our seventh Loo Book Club discussion! We'll discuss the new book Flush: The Remarkable Science of an Unlikely Treasure by Bryn Nelson. Register for the event here!
ONLINE: The American Foundation for Children with AIDS shared a podcast episode in honor of the special day. They talk about some of the challenges of (and with) defecating in the open.
Personal (Online) Activities
Here are some things you can do to make World Toilet Day an everyday celebration:
Answer the question, could we talk about toilets better? - Our 2022 summer intern wrote an analysis about how we Google toilet-related topics, and it's fascinating!
Inspire yourself by watching hot takes from toilet professionals - Our friends at PooAndU have been collecting some great stories from toilet nerds.
Learn about toilets in our (new & improved) Education Portal - From types of toilets to history timelines.
Request a fun toilet class - We have many online class options for adults and kids.
Follow social media's favorite sewer network - Our friends at NEORSD just created a fun sewer-related SubStack for your inbox.
Read some of our toilet thoughts in our regularly-updated blog - We've got posts from this year about toilet tourism, exploring toilet concepts and questions, and even spooky tales from Halloween!
Sing along to our World Toilet Day playlist - Lots of these tunes are quite catchy! And yes, we do keep updating it.
Loo Book Club's Toilet Reading List
With personal activities, maybe you just want to sit down to a good toilet book! Check out the Loo Book Club's Toilet reading list, with our past reviews linked:
Have a fun event or resource you'd like to share with the world about toilets? Email us, and we'll update this post with your info!