Meeting of the Parliament 24 November 2015
It does seem appropriate for us to have a debate marking world toilet day here in the city, famously, of “Gardyloo!” Although sanitation in this city started to improve a long time ago in the 18th century with the building of the new town and the understanding that municipal hygiene could save lives, 250 years later that is a message that is still to be heard by far too many, and still be acted on on behalf of many more.
For people in developed countries such as ours, flushing a toilet and turning on a tap are taken for granted. Toilets are the topic of the easiest and crassest of jokes, and the organisers of world toilet day are not blind to the comic potential of their endeavours, as their use of the slogan, “World toilet day 2015—we can’t wait”, shows.
However, the hard truth is that more than 650 million people in the world do not have access to clean water, and more than 2.3 billion do not have access to a safe, private toilet. Diarrhoea is one of the three most common killers of young children globally, along with pneumonia and malaria. Every year, around 60 million children are born into homes without access to sanitation. Around 315,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation—that is almost 900 children a day. It is clear that they can’t wait.
The worst thing about that is that this is a problem can be solved. Almost 60 per cent of those deaths could be prevented by clean water, sanitation and good hygiene, including hand washing with soap.
In September, the United Nations adopted new global goals on sustainable development. The entire world came together to agree a path to a fairer, more sustainable world—one in which extreme poverty has been eliminated and, no matter where someone is, they have enough food to eat, clean water to drink, a safe, private place to relieve themselves, and soap and water to wash with.
Goal 6 promises adequate, equitable access to water, sanitation and hygiene for everyone everywhere by 2030. There is a bonus to be had from that, because for every £1 invested in sanitation there is a return of around £4; health is improved; fewer days are lost to illness; and girls in particular stay on at school longer and complete their education. World toilet day is not a joke but important, and I am glad to be the one to have us mark it for—I think—the first time.
We do not always get toilets right here in Scotland either. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my young constituent, Grace Warnock of Prestonpans, who is in the public gallery this evening. Ten-year-old Grace has Crohn’s disease, but happily she is currently in remission. She previously had to use accessible disabled toilets when she was out and about because that enabled her to quickly access a toilet when she needed to and because such toilets have washing facilities to hand and enough space for her mum to help her.
Being able to use an accessible toilet affords Grace support and dignity when she needs it most. That should be straightforward enough, but Grace’s experience of using accessible toilets has sometimes not been positive. That is due in part to many people thinking that, if someone is not a wheelchair user or does not have another visible disability, they should not be using an accessible toilet. Grace responded by coming up with a great idea to help raise public understanding; she simply designed a new door sign to highlight the fact that not everyone who needs to use an accessible toilet uses a wheelchair or has a visible disability.
Grace also wrote to me, and I was able to arrange meetings for her with the independent living in Scotland project and the Scottish Disability Equality Forum, both of which have taken up her campaign. Grace and her campaign featured in The Big Issue, and she found a company willing to realise her design professionally. We now have commitments from South Lanarkshire Council, my and Grace’s home council of East Lothian and enjoyleisure, which runs our local leisure facilities, which have all agreed to trial Grace’s sign for real in their buildings.
Frankly, that is not bad for a 10-year-old, although it is worth saying that Grace clearly gets her flair for campaigning, not to say her unstoppable determination, from her mum, Judith, who has been with her every step of the way. They are a formidable team, and they are not going to be satisfied until Grace’s sign goes up on accessible toilets all over Scotland.
I must admit that, when I started this, I thought that there would be some body that we could find that had responsibility for this kind of signage and that, if we could win it over, the campaign would have won. However, it seems that there is no such body, so Grace and her mum are having to fight this pretty much one toilet door at a time. Grace was asked by the United Nations to help raise awareness of world toilet day and, indeed, its themes—so appropriate to her campaign—of equality and dignity. She decided to do so by collecting funny pictures of toilets from friends and family on her “Grace’s Sign” Facebook page, and members can see them there.
If the minster would like to do something very practical to mark world toilet day, here is my suggestion: agree to adopt Grace’s sign and use the Scottish Government’s offices to promote it throughout the public sector in Scotland. A little more dignity for all those who need accessible toilets: that is surely not too much to ask.
17:09