Photos show how hard it is to find a place to go in many countries
World Toilet Day, which started in 2001 and was recognized by the United Nations in 2013, is meant to draw attention to the lack of adequate sanitation the UN says results from "bad economics and poor infrastructure," limiting access to sufficient fresh water around the world.
To mark the day — World Toilet Day is Nov. 19 — Reuters photographers captured pictures of toilets in cities, towns and villages around the globe. Following is a look at 10 of them.
1. Cape Town, South Africa
Photographed on Oct. 14, these ubiquitous blue portable toilets familiar to anyone who has been to an outdoor concert or construction site function as permanent restrooms in Khayelitsha Township.
2. Yenagoa, Nigeria
A toilet floats near Yenagoa, a town in Nigeria's delta region, on Oct. 8. Every year, millions of people — most of them children — die from diseases linked to poor sanitation, unhygienic living conditions and lack of clean water supplies, the UN says.
3. Near Damascus, Syria
Survivors of war face the challenge of meeting basic needs among the rubble in Douma, a town east of Damascus, Syria, on Oct. 17.
4. Santiago, Chile
A toilet stands in the middle of an empty field on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, on Oct. 8. Some 2.4 billion people around the world don't have access to decent sanitation and more than a billion are forced to defecate in the open, risking disease and other dangers, according to the United Nations.
5. Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
For some, roughing it in an outhouse is temporary. Researchers at the Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station, north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, share a communal pit toilet carved into the ice during their seasonal stints at the facility.
6. Idomeni, Greece
For migrants seeking refuge in Western Europe, fields like this one in Idomeni, on the Greek-Macedonian border, offer some of the only privacy available. Thousands of refugees and migrants camped on the border this summer before continuing their journeys westward.
7. Shigezhuang, China
Posters, including advertisements for sexually transmitted disease treatments, adorn the walls of a public toilet in a neighbourhood housing migrant workers in Shigezhuang village, near Beijing, China, on Oct. 13.
8. Abidjan, Ivory Coast
An outdoor toilet in the Marcory district of Abidjan, photographed on Oct. 13, bears a notice reading "strangers prohibited from using this toilet." The sign on the right reads, "Pissing prohibited."
9. Kuril Islands, Russia
No matter the country, the outline of an outhouse is unmistakable. Here, a toilet stands in a Russian field in the town of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, on Kunashir Island, on Sept. 16.
10. Tibet
The call of nature is unavoidable wherever we happen to be on the planet. Here, the first light of dawn illuminates Mount Everest, while the light from a public toilet block illuminates the foreground.
