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World Toilet Day is here and #WeCantWait November 19, 2014 (http://www.unwater.org/worldtoiletday) is relatively new being recognized as an official day by the joining the more established World Water Day (March 22) and Global Handwashing Day (October 19). This year’s 2014 World Toilet Day tagline #wecantwait is well chosen as there are 2.5 billion people still without access to proper . This gap in access to proper sanitation, which includes toilets and latrines, contributes not only to diarrheal illness - which continues to kill more children every day than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined - but also negatively effects the environment, creates risks to personal safety, and hinders social and economic development.

Progress has been made toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7 but there is still much more to be done. While more than 700 million people lack access to improved sources of , two and a half billion people - over one third of the world’s population – lack proper sanitation facilities. And the reality is that the sanitation target is the most off-track of all the UN MDGs, with 80% of countries falling behind their national targets.

At P&G we believe in ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. Good health leads to opportunities for education, healthier communities, and economic advancement – and this all starts with access to safe water, proper sanitation, and education.

It is ironic that our oldest efforts in WASH began when P&G was founded nearly 177 years ago as a soap and candle company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Today, our personal care brands continue to support global hygiene education efforts, which reach more than 4.5 million children each year with our Safeguard Clean Hands, Healthy Kids campaign and with hygiene education in countries like China, Philippines, Pakistan and Mexico.

The Always Protecting Futures Program is aimed at helping young girls in Sub-Sahara Africa stay in school by providing puberty education and sanitary products and this program also supports improved sanitation facilities. For many girls, reaching puberty means missing classes because they don’t have access to private latrines or toilets and sanitary pads – not to mention bullying from peers when they have their period. Girls can miss more than 10% of the school year, and they often drop out.

On CSDW we have worked with our many partners to raise awareness of the global water crisis and to provide more than 7.8 billion liters of clean drinking water using P&G water purification packets. Water, sanitation and hygiene – collectively WASH – are all critical elements to address in our CSDW mission reduce the illness and death caused by diarrheal illness that most often occurs in children. Our NGO partners are working every day to implement WASH solutions with families, communities, and governments around the world. We know the challenges in WASH, and especially those in sanitation, are bigger than supply and demand of technologies or distribution to underserved or remote areas around the world. It’s also about education – for both communities without access to proper sanitation and the larger global community as a whole. As with many issues, broader understanding can lead to broader support. That’s why World Toilet Day is important to build awareness and momentum to tackle this challenge and ensure "Equality and Dignity” isn’t just this year’s theme but becomes achievable for the 2.5 billion people who lack access to proper sanitation.

Allison Tummon Kamphuis, P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program Leader