World Portable Sanitation Day is a Day to Remember

World Portable Sanitation Day is on November 19. This annual event is a day for many of us in the U.S. to acknowledge our good fortune at having sanitation facilities readily available to us, while also recognizing that in many regions of the world, people do not enjoy this luxury.

There are, in fact, large swathes of the globe where there are no sanitation facilities whatsoever—built-in or portable—and where it’s simply not possible to experience a basic necessity of maintaining one’s health, safety, dignity and comfort.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 2.4 billion who live without a toilet, roughly one-third of the global population.

World Portable Sanitation Day is a good day to reflect on this reality and to resolve to do our part to promote better sanitation for all global citizens. Held in conjunction with World Toilet Day, it’s a day to:

• Reaffirm our commitment to ensuring everyone everywhere has access to toilets by 2030, as set forth by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
• Grow awareness of the role of portable restrooms as a practical solution when there’s no viable structure in which to house an indoor restroom, or where scarcity of water makes a built-in restroom unfeasible.
• Take a macro-economic view of sanitation initiatives, which, by improving people’s health, also reduce sick days, improve workers’ productivity and drive global economic growth.

At United Site Services, we’re expert providers of portable sanitation services. We know what a difference portable sanitation can make in the lives of workers on job sites, attendees at special events, and more broadly, everyday people around the world who don’t have the access or means to use permanent facilities.

For United Site Services, on World Portable Sanitation Day, it’s not just a matter of us acknowledging our technical expertise in the delivery, servicing and pick-up of portable toilet facilities. Rather, it’s a thought process in which we realize we’re part of something greater—a desire to make all humans more comfortable and secure, and to give everyone a chance to experience the sense of well-being of knowing their basic needs are being recognized, respected and met.