Question 1: Hello Jack Sim, could you please tell us who you are and how you manage to shift the global media attention from water to sanitation?

My name is Jack Sim. I'm the founder of the World Toilet Organization. 20 years ago, when we first started the World Toilet Organization, there were no media coverage about sanitation. They call it the water agenda. To decouple that and give sanitation its own focus we invented this World Toilet Organization, with the acronym of WTO, which is a pun on the World Trade Organization and got the attention of the global media. They were at that time so uncomfortable talking about toilets, poop, pee, sanitation that they call it a 'water agenda' so we put it on centre stage and the media loves our unique blend of humour and serious facts. So, what has happened is that in 2001 there were six billion people in the world and 40 per cent of them didn't have access to proper sanitation, that's about 2.6 billion people who didn't have a toilet. Today, the world population is 7.9 billion and the number of people who don't have a toilet is 2 billion, so it's gone down from 40 per cent to just 25 per cent.

Question 2: How does the lack of toilets and proper sanitation impact women specifically?

If women don't have toilets, they suffer all kinds of problems. First, if they go to school and there's no toilet, they can't change their sanitary pads in front of the boys, so they drop out of school. If they can't catch up, they drop out of school altogether. If girls are not educated, they continue to be poor. Also, women and girls who go out to defecate in the open behind the bush are looked at every day. It's a huge loss of dignity. Very often, rape occurs when men are aroused by seeing a vulnerable woman alone. Sometimes they have been murdered after being raped. So, imagine not having a toilet - the kind of trauma, loss of dignity and safety is just terrible! So, if there is any woman out there who wants to help other women, please help them get access to sanitation and menstrual hygiene. If women don't have access to sanitary pads, they use all sorts of rags and newspapers, even dry leaves, and straws. These are not hygienic, and they end up getting infections in their organs. I think we need to talk about this. We need to make it a priority so that it becomes normal for them to be safe and healthy.

Question 3: What steps can be taken to ensure that sanitation receives its fair share of attention alongside other global agendas and receives the necessary funding for effective solutions?

The sanitation agenda competes with many other pressing issues, such as climate change and COVID-19, as well as Kim Kardashian's lunch, football, and films. It's important to recognise that the overall quality of human life cannot improve if we neglect discussions on this vital issue. Every agenda, not just climate change and well-funded ones like COVID-19, deserves attention. Furthermore, toilets play an important role in the context of climate change. Shockingly, half of all human excreta ends up untreated in rivers, lakes, and oceans, or in open dumps. This contamination leads to a scarcity of clean water. Climate change is already causing droughts and shortages of clean water, and if we pollute what water we do have, it's even worse! To combat this, it is essential to recycle, reuse and treat human waste as a valuable nutrient. By returning it to the soil as fertiliser and turning it into biogas, we can make a difference!

Question 4: How can we break the taboo surrounding the topic of toilets and sanitation and why is it important to do so?

There are so many taboos in human history that people don't talk about. It could be Black Lives Matter or slavery or LGBT or #MeToo, and the toilet is another taboo that we must break because if we don't talk about it, we can't improve it. So, what we must do is ultimately make toilets a normal topic that is no longer considered rude. I'm calling on everyone to talk about toilets, sanitation, hygiene, and public health as if it were a normal subject like food and drink, because what goes in comes out. We even have to come up with glossaries of words that are gentrified, or at least change our mindset so that the poor who don't have a toilet have to want one and prioritise that over spending money on festivals and God's birthday. They could use that money to build a toilet. The public toilets are dirty, and people should complain about that. The more we talk about something, the better it gets. I hope that one day everyone, everywhere will have access to a clean, safe toilet whenever they need it.

Conclusion:

As we conclude this interview with Jack Sim, his passionate call to action resonates deeply. In a world where sanitation competes for attention with a myriad of pressing issues, Mr Sim's message is clear: every agenda deserves its spotlight. Often overlooked, sanitation is key to improving the quality of life for billions of people around the world. By addressing the impact of inadequate sanitation on women, advocating for increased funding and attention, and breaking the silence surrounding this vital issue, we can work towards a future where access to clean, safe toilets is a basic human right.

Jack Sim aka Mr. Toilet

Reference: Transcript from a YouTube video by World Toilet Organization World Toilet Day Interview with Jack Sim - YouTube

Date of the Interview: 16.11.2021