11月19日是世界厕所日，由于全球范围内无法使用卫生厕所的人数在过去五年内持续下降，联合国儿童基金会对于各国环境卫生状况的前景表示谨慎乐观。厕所的匮乏仍然是导致儿童患病和死亡的主要原因之一。联合国儿童基金会估计，每年在全球范围内有大约200万名孩子死于肺炎和腹泻。如果水、环境卫生和个人卫生状况得到改善的话，这两种疾病都是可以预防的。
On World Toilet Day, UNICEF says that trends in the past fiveyears allow for cautious optimism that significant progress will bemade in decreasing the number of people globally without safe sanitation.
A lack of toilets remains one of the leading causes of illness and death among children. UNICEFestimates that around 2 million children die each year from pneumonia and diarrhoea, illnesseswhich are largely preventable with improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene.
According to UNICEF only 64 percent of the population in China have improved toilets. Animproved latrine is one that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact.
According to a 2012 joint UNICEF and World Health Organization report, 36 percent of thenational population, or 477 million Chinese, have no access to safe toilets.
Despite the large number of people without safe sanitation, China has made significant progress inimproving rural sanitation services in recent years. In 1990 less than a quarter of China'spopulation had access to safe sanitation.
"People are ashamed of toilets," said Dr. Yang Zhenbo, UNICEF Water and Sanitation specialist, "especially in rural China, toilets are seen as a filthy place and people refuse to build in toilets whenthey construct new houses or new schools."
"When people get access to safe sanitation many aspects of human development improve, andthe situation of children improves as well," said Gillian Mellsop, UNICEF Representative in China. "That is why we are saying it's time to talk more about toilets. If toilets and sanitation and hygieneare more often talked about conditions for rural children will even more rapidly improve."
The same UNICEF and WHO report estimates that in rural China, safe latrines are available toabout half of the population.
"School children in China are badly in need to sanitary latrines. The problem is especially difficultfor girls, as they often avoid going to school during their menstrual period," Yang said.
A 2007 national survey by Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention showed that only 24% of schools had sanitary latrines.
A single gram of human faeces can contain 10 million viruses and 1 million bacteria. It also spreadsdiarrhoea, one of the leading causes of death for children under five, and intestinal worms, whichcontribute to malnutrition and hold back physical and mental growth.
"If we all start talking about toilets, give toilet a clean name, more children will enjoy a brighter andhealthier future," said Dr. Yang.
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