26 August 2018: The World Bank and partners hosted a session at World Water Week 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden, which highlighted the role of public and shared toilets in achieving sanitation for all. The Bank also launched a report on the delivery models for shared and public toilets. While much attention has focused on individual household toilets, the Bank emphasizes that universal access to sanitation can only be achieved by addressing the operations and maintenance (O&M) issues that are frequently experienced with shared and public toilets.

SDG target 6.2 seeks to achieve access to “adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all” and to end open defecation by 2030.

A blog post on the World Bank website reports that 20% of the global population do not have their own toilets at home, and must rely on shared facilities or open defecation. The authors explain that, as the world becomes more urban, shared and public toilets must be understood as part of the mix that is needed to achieve sanitation for all; however, research shows that many public toilets become unusable within a few years of being built. [World Bank Blog Post: How Many People Can Share A Toilet?]

Many people who have individual household toilets may nevertheless suffer from a lack of toilet facilities as they spend many hours away from home.

The World Bank, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), WaterAid, the University of Leeds, and the World Health Organization (WHO) organized a session on O&M issues on 26 August at World Water Week on the theme, ‘Shared Sanitation: When Individual Toilets Aren’t Enough.’ The session explored sanitation challenges, and included an idea competition, in which participants developed innovative concepts for addressing common issues in O&M, such as vandalism, cleanliness and technical maintenance. [World Water Week Session Announcement]

The Bank also launched a report titled, ‘Shared and Public Toilets: Championing Delivery Models that Work.’ The report highlights that many people who have individual household toilets may nevertheless suffer from a lack of toilet facilities as they spend many hours away from home. Furthermore, residents of urban slums and low-income areas may prefer to have shared toilets for reasons to do with costs and available space.

The report provides tools for situation assessment, and discusses examples from around the world where consultation and management arrangements have achieved viable and hygienic toilet facilities.

The report is published by the World Bank Group’s Water Global Practice, which was launched in 2014. The Water Global Practice has developed an approach to urban sanitation called the Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) initiative. CWIS promotes technical solutions to promote safely managed sanitation services in cities. [Shared and Public Toilets: Championing Delivery Models That Work] [World Bank Report Web Page]