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STORY: UN / WORLD TOILET DAY
TRT: 2.02
SOURCE; UNTV / UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 JULY 2013, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
RECENT – UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
24 JULY 2013, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
2. Wide shot, GA meeting
3. Cutaway, audience
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Neo, Deputy Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations:
2.5 billion people still do not have proper sanitation, that 1.1 billion people still defecate in the open, and that ending open defecation will lead to a 35 percent reduction of diarrhoea, which results in over 750,000 deaths of children under five years of age every year.”
5. Cutaway, Singapore’s delegate listening
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Neo, Deputy Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations:
“Without safe and private toilets women and girls face the threat of violence when they go out of their homes to relieve themselves, and that girls are reluctant to attend school if there are no proper toilet facilities.”
7. Cutaway, audience
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Neo, Deputy Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations:
“Through this simple draft resolution before the General Assembly today, we will have an international platform to shine a spotlight, to collaborate on special events and to develop further synergies on the issues of toilets and sanitation. We hope that this initiative to commemorate World toilet Day in the context of Sanitation for All on 19 November will be taken up at the local, national, regional and international levels by all stakeholders in a manner appropriate to their priorities, needs and particular circumstances.”
FILE – UNICEF - 23 AUGUST 2012, MIRZAPUR, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
9. Zoom out, child standing along with his mother in their hut
10. Med shot, villager carrying bucket to go for a bath
11. Wide shot, girl using a child friendly toilet in her school
12. Various shots, girl carrying water in bucket to use in the toilet
In a bid to make sanitation for all a global development priority, the United Nations (un) General Assembly today (24 July) designated 19 November as World Toilet Day, urging changes in both behavior and policy on issues ranging from enhancing water management to ending open-air defecation.
Adopting a new resolution, the Assembly urged UN Member States and relevant stakeholders to encourage behavioral change and the implementation of policies to increase access to sanitation among the poor, along with a call to end the practice of open-air defecation, which it deemed “extremely harmful” to public health.
Introducing the resolution Singapore’s Deputy Ambassador Mark Neo told delegates that “2.5 billion” still did not have proper sanitation, and that “1.1 billion people” still defecated in the open.
Neo stressed that ending open defecation would lead to a “35 percent reduction of diarrhoea, which results in over 750,000 deaths of children under five years of age every year.”
Sanitation is also a question of basic dignity. Neo pointed out that “without safe and private toilets women and girls face the threat of violence when they go out of their homes to relieve themselves.”
The resolution also recognizes the role that civil society and non-governmental organizations play in raising awareness of this issue, and it also calls on countries to approach sanitation in a much broader context that includes hygiene promotion, the provision of basic sanitation services, and sewerage and wastewater treatment and reuse in the context of integrated water management.
Neo ended his presentation expressing his hope that the initiative to commemorate World toilet Day in the context of Sanitation for All on 19 November “will be taken up at the local, national, regional and international levels by all stakeholders in a manner appropriate to their priorities, needs and particular circumstances.”
The countries where open defecation is most widely practiced are the same countries with the highest numbers of under-five child deaths, high levels of under-nutrition and poverty, and large wealth disparities.
World Toilet Day has previously been marked by international and civil society organizations all over the world. However, it was not formally recognized as an official UN day until today.
