Archives

Why World Toilet Day 2024 Matters – Even Down Under!

As plumbers, we know toilets are more than just fixtures. They’re essential to our health, comfort, and sanitation. World Toilet Day on November 19th isn’t just a quirky holiday; it’s a day with a big purpose: to highlight the importance of access to safe sanitation and remind us that millions worldwide lack basic toilet facilities.

India has more mobiles than toilets

Why Toilets Matter More Than We Think
We all know the frustration of a blocked toilet—but imagine not having one at all! For billions globally, the toilet is a luxury. Access to a proper toilet impacts health, prevents disease, and helps protect water resources. World Toilet Day, established by the United Nations, raises awareness about global sanitation challenges. Check out the UN’s World Toilet Day page here for more on why sanitation is critical to public health and the environment.

  1. Aussie Plumbing Perks: An Advantage We Often Overlook
    Here in Coogee and across Australia, we might not think twice about plumbing, but that’s a testament to the professionals keeping things flowing smoothly (hello from The Lone Drainer!). While we’re fighting tree roots in drains and ensuring wastewater flows properly, billions worldwide contend with open defecation or unsafe toilets.
  2. What Can We Do? Support, Awareness & Local Action
    There are ways we can help, even locally. Each year, World Toilet Day inspires initiatives to improve sanitation globally and raise funds to help communities in need. In Australia, spreading awareness and supporting organizations like WaterAid can make a world of difference. If you’re interested in supporting sanitation access worldwide, consider learning more about organizations like WaterAid and their mission to bring safe toilets to communities that need them most.”
  3. For Homeowners: Why Toilet Health Matters
    A well-functioning toilet isn’t just convenient; it’s key to health and property value. Got a blocked drain? Roots wreaking havoc? There’s no better reminder than World Toilet Day to invest in regular plumbing checks (and maybe even Vaporooter treatments!).

Conclusion:
This World Toilet Day, let’s appreciate our loos! While we’re lucky in Coogee, billions aren’t as fortunate. Together, we can help flush away these inequalities, one toilet at a time.

Roll your toilet paper from the bottom

In every plumbing situation there are options, and how you roll your toilet paper is no exception.

In a previous post, Roll Your Own Toilet Paper we presented the case for having your toilet paper rolling from the top however, Is upside down the right way up?

As we observe during our bathroom travels some people choose to roll their toilet paper from the bottom due to their personal preferences or habits. Here are a few reasons why some individuals may prefer that orientation:

  1. Aesthetics: Some individuals find that rolling the toilet paper from the bottom creates a tidier appearance. They believe that the loose end of the roll is less visible and tucked away when hanging behind the roll, which they perceive as visually appealing.
  2. Habit or Tradition: Rolling the toilet paper from the bottom may be a habit or preference that people have grown accustomed to over time. It could be influenced by the way they were taught or observed others using it in their households or public restrooms.
  3. Pets or Children: In households with curious pets or small children, rolling the toilet paper from the bottom may be done intentionally. The idea is that it makes it more difficult for pets or children to easily unravel the entire roll by swatting at it or pulling on the loose end.
  4. Space Constraints: In some bathrooms, the toilet paper holder may be located close to a wall or other fixtures, leaving limited space for the roll. Rolling the toilet paper from the bottom can help prevent the roll from extending too far and potentially hitting the wall or obstructing nearby items.
  5. Personal Convenience: While rolling from the top is often considered more convenient, some individuals may find it easier to tear off the desired amount of toilet paper when it rolls from the bottom. This preference could be due to the direction in which they naturally pull or the way they position their hand for tearing.

It’s important to note that these reasons are subjective and may not apply to everyone. Ultimately, the choice of how to roll the toilet paper comes down to personal preference and individual habits.

Waddya reckon?

Who Gives a Crap

If you need to stock up on Toilet Paper we have supplies of Who Gives a Crap at our Coogee office.

Roll your toilet paper from the top

All of us use the bathroom. And occasionally we want to know what’s going on in other peoples bathrooms.

Bathrooms and toilets are our workplace, and the observations made from bathrooms often go unrecorded. But today, I reckon its time to share some of those observations.

A common theme is how home owners dispense their toilet rolls on the toilet roll holder. (Click here to read about the Australian patent on toilet roll holders.) Some pull their toilet paper from the back of the roll. While others pull from the top. So we carried out a little survey

Here are the top five reasons why people prefer toilet paper to roll from the top:

  1. Ease of Use: When the toilet paper is positioned with the loose end hanging over the top, it is easier to locate and grab the end of the roll. This makes it more convenient and efficient to tear off the desired amount of toilet paper without any hassle.
  2. Reduced Risk of Touching the Wall: Rolling the toilet paper from the top helps to minimize the chances of accidentally touching the wall behind it. This is especially important in public restrooms where hygiene is crucial, as touching the wall can transfer germs and bacteria.
  3. Neat Appearance: Rolling the toilet paper from the top provides a neater and more visually appealing look. The loose end of the roll is neatly presented, making it easier to grab and tear off without causing the roll to unravel or become messy.
  4. Prevents Unwanted Unraveling: Placing the loose end at the top prevents the roll from unintentionally unraveling. If the end hangs down the back of the roll, it can sometimes get caught on nearby objects or surfaces, causing the paper to unwind and waste.
  5. Intuitive Orientation: Rolling the toilet paper from the top is considered more intuitive for most people. When reaching for toilet paper, it is more natural to pull it down from the top rather than from behind the roll. This orientation aligns with our instinctive hand movements and provides a smoother user experience.

While your personal preferences may vary, these reasons highlight the practical and aesthetic advantages of rolling toilet paper from the top.

Who Gives a Crap

If this post has got you thinking about toilet paper, why not choose Who Gives a Crap for your next shipment. Who Gives a Crap donates half of their profits to developing countries that don’t have plumbing, sewers and the toilets that we take for granted.

Wash your hands. World Toilet Day

Hands are a major part of any plumbers tool kit.

Without them, it would be difficult to carryout other parts of our job.  Cutting pipes with a saw, cleaning and glueing pipes together, disconnecting the water and gas at your meter, changing tap washers in your hand basin or even clearing a blocked drain with a sink plunger.

And washing hands is part of our job!
I could wash my hands at least 10 times a day, even if we are wearing gloves to protect them and especially after clearing a blocked drain.

In fact, being a NSW Master Plumber in Sydney we are reminded Hygieia is the goddess of health, cleanliness and hygiene.

Her name is the source of the word Hygiene.

World Toilet Day 2022

What is World Toilet Day? World toilet day is now celebrated every year on November 19th. It was declared by the UN in 2013 to raise awareness to the plight of over 3.6 billion people worldwide that don’t have a flushing toilet or access to clean water for drinking and washing their hands after going to the toilet.

What does that mean? No household toilet. At all! It’s difficult to comprehend living in Australia where every house has at least one and sometimes four or more toilets that have complete privacy, toilet paper and fresh water to flush the toilet and wash your hands with.

Really? Yes really! Over 3.6 Billion people go to the toilet outside, without any privacy. They squat down in a paddock, behind a bush, in the street or even on the railway lines to relieve themselves. They then may use leaves or grass or sand to wipe themselves clean. And they don’t have water to wash their hands after that.

How is that unhygienic? Human waste on the streets and in paddocks can end up getting washed into drains, creeks and waterways that are the source of their drinking water. People swim in those waterways. Diarrhoea is rampant and part of a spiraling cycle of malnutrition and a large loss of life. Especially in young children.

What can I do to help? Raise awareness of World Toilet Day. In 2022 it falls on a Saturday. Share your insights with your family and friends. Think about using Who Gives A Crap toilet paper. Who Gives a Crap donate half of their profits to improve sanitation in third world countries. Learn about and protect our water table.

What is the water table? Australia’s water table or Artesian basin has fortunately been topped up by our recent rains. As many as 30 per cent of us get our drinking water from the water table. In the USA it’s as high as 38 per cent. Imagine if untreated human waste made its way into the water table and, that contaminated water was then consumed by those Australians who live in remote parts of our country that have no choice for their drinking water.

3.6 billion people don’t have a flushing toilet!

Whaaaat? Astounding but true!

World Toilet Day is Friday, November 19th 2021.

The day has been sanctioned by the United Nations aimed at bringing awareness to the plight of more than 3.6 billion people worldwide who don’t have a place to go to the toilet in private and then wash their hands. That means that women and men and young girls and boys have to go to the toilet outdoors. A major concern is that women and young girls without a toilet do their business under cover of the night which leads to personal safety threats over and above the concerns of simple hygiene and sanitation that we all take for granted.

Imagine everyone really knowing your business?

Many of us have more than one toilet in our home to choose from and go there with complete privacy. So in a year when we’ve had time to contemplate the simple things, contemplate that!

Or if you are inclined to use toilet paper, Consider Who Gives a Crap. They donate half of their profits to improve sanitation in third world countries. And that’s a good thing!

World Toilet Day 2020

Today is World Toilet Day 2020.

I’d like you to take a minute today and think about the Toilet. Imagine if you didn’t have one?

Spare a thought for the 4 billion people worldwide that don’t have access to a flushing toilet.

Its astounding BUT there are more people with a mobile telephone than a toilet and clean water to wash themselves.

Now, telling your workmates and classmates is a simple way to raise awareness of a sometimes very private subject.

Another way to help is stock up on toilet paper like Who Gives a Crap.
They donate half of their profits to improve sanitation for those less fortunate.

How much will it cost to fix my toilet?

“Running toilet”…..Is all that was stated in an email earlier this week, along with the attached picture.

It’s hard to say from this picture, but I tried to help the writer by asking a few simple questions:

Is it a close coupled suite or are the pan and cistern separate?
Is it the inlet or outlet valve leaking?
Does the water turn off at the control valve?
Is the connection between the control valve and the cistern hard drawn tube or is it one of those flexible braided connections?

The outlet valve is redundant. It could be rewashered if that’s the problem, was part of my email response

The flushing toilet is a wonder of the modern world we can take for granted considering our previous post about 4.4 billion people not having a toilet.
But our local bathroom suppliers currently have 48 different types of toilet cisterns on display and that’s not including the antique in our picture. They all have different water connections and flushing mechanisms.

So please, help us help you by providing as much information as possible about your particular leaking toilet.

In the meantime, you can turn off the water and flush your loo with a bucket.

World Toilet Day 2018

November 19th 2018 is World Toilet Day.

With the population of the world now at approximately 7.7 billion people, many of us would be surprised to learn that over 4.5 billion people do not have a clean toilet or running water to wash their hands.

According to a UN report, a third of schools worldwide don’t have any clean toilet facilities and nearly 1 billion school children don’t have hand washing facilities.

It seems extraordinary that in a world where most people have a mobile telephone approximately 892 million people have to squat out in the open.

This, of course, has knock-on hygiene effects with the pollution of domestic drinking water being a direct contributor to many cases of sickness, disease and even death for those less fortunate than us.

Today, as you use your dual flush toilet in the privacy of your home, workplace or school, spare a thought for these people.

You may also consider buying Who Gives a Crap toilet paper. Who Gives a Crap donate 50% of their profits to help build toilets for those who have none.

Giving a Crap on World Toilet Day 2017

The Lone Drainer and Pronto in Sydney will pay tribute to a unique and special observance whose goal is to install a working toilet in emergent nations.

On November 19, The Lone Drainer and Pronto (TLDP), will participate in the World Toilet Day 2017 (WTD2017). This is a United Nations’ (UN) worldwide event that will highlight the lack of proper sanitation and safely-managed toilets; a problem affecting over 4.5 billion people in economically developing nations.
Read More

Wipe your bum for a good cause!

We all poop. Most of us daily, and some of us do so in style. Now your idea of style can be different to mine, but style is a luxury some simply don’t have.

That’s exactly what the World Poop Day is about!

You might have noticed I have been recently ranting about the ‘poop day’ or to be more specific the World Toilet Day 2017 (WTD2017).

This event is not a joke, not a metaphor of some kind – it’s a REAL DEAL.

If your toilet was blocked for a week, then you probably would be jumping out of your skin, right? What if you had no toilet for two weeks or a month? Unthinkable!

Well, some poor folks in third world countries have no toilet at all. If you had no proper toilet you’d need to squat wherever you can, which sometimes may be very uncomfortable and embarrassing.

Imagine this. You watch the footy (your team is hammering the other team!) when suddenly you have to go for number two. Easy, you visit the loo.

But what if you didn’t have one?

Option one, you run outside, squat anywhere. Shoot.

Option two, you run to your neighbour’s house (you don’t want to poop under your own window). Poop.

Option three, poop in your pants. Wash later. You don’t want to miss your favourite game.

Luckily, for most Aussies we don’t have to think about it, we simply head for the throne, and on the throne, we sit. But we need more thrones especially for those who cannot afford one! No need for fancy ones, only appropriate ones.

That’s the appeal of the WTD2017 – build more thrones, and create proper sanitation conditions for those in need. We need appropriate thrones that can properly take care of business without polluting the environment.

On November 19, 2017 (the WTD2017) be sure to pause and feel grateful if you have access to a working toilet. Billions around the world aren’t so lucky!

If you would like to do something positive, you can purchase the Who Gives a Crap toilet paper – we give 50% of the profits towards building more toilets.

Be sure to forward this page on to friends and family. We all need to wipe ourselves after taking a dump – now you can wipe yourself for a good cause!

Something to think about when you reclaim your throne!

I had a few clients and blog readers asking me questions about the upcoming World Toilet Day 2017. To recap, it’s about raising public awareness of the worldwide problem of inhumane toilet conditions that some must deal with.

Today, I would like to answer some of the questions about World Toilet Day 2017, and suggest an easy way for you to make a difference.

What is the World Toilet Day 2017? (WTD2017)

The WTD2017 is a special observance arranged by the United Nations (UN) to highlight the serious problem of the lack of proper sanitation conditions in many third world countries. Over 4.5 billion people have no toilet/working toilet; this is a third of the world’s population!

When will this important observance be held?

The WTD2017 will take place on November 19, 2017.

Am I at risk?
In Australia, you should be fine unless you live in rural areas with no access to proper toilet and sanitation. If you don’t poop in a hygienic toilet or if the poop is not disposed of properly, then with the aid of rainwater it may enter the ecosystem. This is often the problem in many third world countries. That’s why the goal of WTD2017 is to raise public awareness and get people talking about this important issue – hopefully, that will make a positive difference!

Why should I care?
Well, if no one cares, no one cares, right? But we can all make a difference. You see, according to WHO (2014) improved sanitation could stop around 842,000 people from dying each year.

What can you do?
You could, for example, donate money or support a reputable charity or purchase the Who Gives a Crap toilet paper. (50% of its profits go to building toilets for people who need them most).

Here’s the link if you would like to support this important cause. The toilet paper has no chlorine, no inks, no dyes, and no perfume or deodorant. It’s good for your bum–it’s good for the world!

Remember, to pause at least for a moment on November 19, 2017 to think about the World Toilet Day 2017. If you wipe yourself with the Who Gives a Crap toilet paper, you know you’re also making a difference with every wipe!

World Toilet Day 2017

A UN report claims that worldwide, at least 2.4 billion people are without basic sanitation. The report states some of the peoples of south Asia and sub Saharan Africa don’t have access to a toilet or clean running water.

It appears that people in these parts of the world have a mobile phone but don’t have a working toilet.

Living and working as a plumber in Sydney Australia visiting some of the best homes in the country, it seems crazy that over 869 million people still defecate out in the open.

So what can the average reader do to help those less fortunate than us?

Good Question!

Look out for reputable organisations that are working to deliver the basic hygiene we take for granted and send them a donation.

Even a small donation equivalent of what we Aussies spend on coffee weekly would change the living standard and the lives of many of those less fortunate.

Make a difference during World Toilet Day 2017!

Did you know that some people have to do without a toilet?

In the West, we’re so used to sitting on one when we go for a number two. If the toilet runs smoothly we don’t even think about it; we take it for granted.

But sitting down for number two in comfort and style is a luxury many simply cannot afford. And we’re not talking about having shiny porcelain toilets with fancy fixtures. They have no toilets–be it porcelain, wooden or a metal one. NONE.

So, where does the poo go? Well, that’s why you just have to hear about the important World Toilet Day 2017 or WTD2017 for short.

You see, when you reclaim your throne, billions of people must wing it so to speak and take a dump wherever possible. Their toileting might happen anywhere. In the woods behind a tree, under a bridge, or in some fenced-in backyard. And, we’re not talking about an emergency where you find yourself driving past midnight with your girlfriend, and suddenly you must go.

Of course, those things happen. But imagine having to plan, search and hunt for squatting space every time you need to take a dump! Well, consider this:

According to WHO/UNICEF (2017) a whopping 4.5 billion people either have no toilet or no working toilet. About 869 million people worldwide practise open defecation because they have no proper toilet! But, it gets worse.

A shocking 1.8 billion people drink water that has no protection against contamination from faeces. So, the question ‘where does the poop go?’ becomes a serious issue. Because every time the poop is not disposed of properly it may enter the ecosystem and end up in a drinking water reservoir!

So, count yourself lucky the next time you take a seat on your comfortable porcelain, and you don’t have to use grass or leaves to clean yourself!

Most importantly, be sure to spread the news about the WTD2017.

And yes, there is something you’re contributing by purchasing the Who Gives a Crap toilet paper – 50% of the profits are used to build toilets in third world countries.

Thankfully, we have the World Toilet Day 2017; it puts things into perspective a little, doesn’t it?

World Toilet Day 2016

Today November 19th, 2016 is  World Toilet Day .

What does working as a plumber in Sydney, one of the greatest cities in the world, mean to me on World Toilet Day?

This is a city of contrast and we get to see mostly the top end where it’s nothing for people to spend over $1000 to buy a new toilet.

Many of the houses we visit have 2 or more toilets and many of us take it for granted that we can use a toilet, then flush the loo with clean drinking water from our seemingly endless water supply.

A lot of Sydneysiders would be surprised to know that about 1/3 of the world’s population have neither a toilet to use or clean running water to drink. Let alone flushing away their bodily waste off to a treatment works, somewhere out of sight. And out of mind!

Today, when you use your toilet, think for a moment how we might help those less fortunate.

During your Christmas holiday, if you visit an underprivileged country and experience poor toilet hygiene, think of those people and how we may be able to help them before World Toilet Day 2017. If you’ve got the stomach for it, take a picture of your travel experience and send it to me.

I’d like to raise awareness of this simple missing basic need for so many.