Hansard

When I first read the motion, I thought that it was a bit of a joke, or rather, a bummer. Indeed, I am not sure that it is not but it is also deadly serious, as we have heard from Mark McDonald, Jenny Marra and Iain Gray. I will have to be careful not to fill this speech with double entendre or more obvious toilet terms.

I find these world days, world weeks or world awareness weeks rather ridiculous because they seem to happen all the time. In this case, however, I have read the motion and I understand exactly what it is trying to achieve. Basically, it is about improving sanitation worldwide. At one point, I thought that it might be to do with the protest against City of Edinburgh Council closing the public toilets, but it is not.

Access to clean and safe sanitation, including toilets, is fundamentally important to human health, safety and dignity. It is therefore entirely right that the sustainable development goals prioritise access to safe sanitation for all. However, Governments declaring something to be a goal does not mean that it will happen and Government initiatives are the only way to make it happen. The changing places toilets are an example of that, and I will be interested to hear what the minister says on that. I have come across them, but when I was in another venue with another person, it was very undignified.

As the older United Nations development goals showed, much progress is brought about by economic development so, although it is worth promoting sustainable development goals, it is vital to put in place policies to help developing countries’ economies to trade freely. The United Kingdom Government has been at the forefront of international efforts to help sanitation projects in poor countries in which the inadequacy of toilet facilities is most marked. During the previous parliamentary session, the UK Government helped to provide more than 51 million people with access to water, sanitation and improved hygiene. That included supplying clean water and latrines to 340,000 people in Haiti with the help of local volunteers, reinforced by a public health education campaign to spread the word to 125,000 people in the area.

Of course, making a lasting difference in clean sanitation will take more than building some toilets. I read that Bathgate has recently been named as Scotland’s first toilet-twinned town. There were even schemes in India where people were paid to use toilets, because the existing public toilets had been left unused for a variety of reasons. I think that this should really have been called world sanitation day rather than world toilet day, because it is about ensuring the availability and the sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, wherever they are.

Taking this closer to home, in France there is a proliferation of toilets that have been modernised from the old pissoirs that we used to see in the streets. There are those famous pictures of men coming out buttoning their trousers. The French have a rather progressive—or should I say more open—attitude towards these matters and they now have toilets that people pay €1 to use, which automatically clean everything in sight, including possibly people’s bottoms if they are not quick enough.

Taking a more serious line, it is basic sanitation that needs improving, not just toilets, as we can see from the lack of access in some places around the world. It is an issue that needs thought and money to be spent on it. The debate is about more than toilets; it is about sanitation in general. I think that going to the toilet is a bit like death—when you gotta go, you gotta go.