The Great Stink

Today is World Toilet Day.

According to Tearfund:

The figures are overwhelming, almost 900 million people without access to clean water, the majority of them women and children. While over 2.5 billion, a third of the world’s population, are without a clean and safe place to go to the loo.

In 2000, world leaders signed up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), targets that could transform the lives of millions around the world.

We’ve only got another 7 years to go until the targets are meant to be met, and progress on water and sanitation is the most off track, with experts predicting that the goal on sanitation is unlikely to be met until early in the 22nd century, more than 80 years too late.

You can find out more here.
This is potty! (OK, no more silly puns from me.)

How can this be? What are our leaders doing about it? It’s simply not good enough.

But hang on a minute – what am I doing about it? Moaning about it on this blog isn’t likely to help very much. One of the problems is that the numbers are just too big; and the problem is too far away. Maybe that means it’s time to make it personal.

I often think that we respond to the latest crisis, give a few quid (or bucks), then forget about it. What’s stopping us focusing on one or two issues that each of us can contribute to and stay in touch with? Dare we get deeply involved with any social justice issue? It doesn’t have to be toilet-related, but if that ‘pulls your chain’, it’d be worth checking out the WaterAid site.

“We cannot tell what part in God’s plan our little moments play.”
Margaret Killingray