World Toilet Day 2025: Water and Sanitation Institute - IAS and Partners Amplify the Date Through Multiple Actions

The message of World Toilet Day - WTD is one of the most powerful in the work for inclusive and sustainable sanitation. With the advent of the climate crisis, it becomes even more urgent. Not by chance, the theme chosen by UN-Water for the date in 2025 was “Sanitation in a changing world”, highlighting the importance of water, sewage, and drainage infrastructure in the context of climate change.

It is within this framework that IAS, together with partners, promoted the sixth edition of WTD Brasil, celebrated on November 19. It was a movement to bring visibility to the date and amplify sanitation-related agendas and their impact on people’s lives—on social media and by leveraging the Institute’s presence at COP30in Belém.

For the second time, IAS partnered with the “artivist” Mundano, through actions that included producing stickers with sanitation-related messages, which were placed in bathrooms across COP30 venues in Belém, in collaboration with the Mairi Collective. The material helped stimulate this debate at the world’s largest environmental conference. 

Mundano also produced a video for Instagram in collaboration with IAS. “Not everyone can close a bathroom door with peace of mind. And that says a lot about the Brazil we live in”, the artist said in the post’s caption. 

Also, within COP30, IAS reinforced the importance of World Toilet Day and its message in the panel “Sanitation for those who do not have it: Brazil without toilets. A challenge of this scale—and we can tackle it” Held at the Sanitation House, the conversation was a partnership between IAS, National Health Foundation - Funasa, and Brazilian Association of State Sanitation Companies - Aesbe. All acronyms refer to the institutions’ names in Portuguese.

Online campaign

IAS also launched a special website featuring data that reveal distinct aspects of Brazil’s sanitation deficit and initiatives aimed at addressing gaps in the sector, recorded in videos from the web series Saneamento Tem Solução (in English: Sanitation Has a Solution).

The stickers created in partnership with Mundano were also made available in digital format for sharing on social media. IAS’s Instagram profile published posts featuring this material in collaboration with partners such as the Trata Brasil Institute, Vivenda Institute, the Tide Setubal Foundation, Salva Sanitation, Vivenda, the Talanoa Institute, the Health and Happiness Project, and Women of Brazil Group. 

On its Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook profiles, the IAS also published posts with information about the date and its importance for raising awareness about the gaps in basic sanitation in the country, from the lack of sewage collection to the absence of bathrooms in households. 

Through this work, IAS helped put World Toilet Day on the agenda, with the date resonating across multiple social media profiles, both within and beyond the sanitation field. Several Institute partners published materials about WTD, contributing to an engagement and awareness effort that went beyond the sector, positioning sanitation as a cross-cutting issue that intersects areas such as environment, climate, human rights, race, childhood, and public health. 

Was also published on TV Água e Saneamento’s YouTube channel—an initiative of Associação dos Engenheiros da Sabesp - Aesabesp (in English: Association of Sabesp Engineers) an interview with Paula Pollinicoordinator for engagement and advocacy at IAS. The interview addressed the importance of the date, sanitation data, and the country’s challenges. 

As World Toilet Day, November 19 is one of the most significant moments on IAS’s agenda each year. However, the issues and themes that the date helps to disseminate remain relevant and fundamental throughout the year. We remain committed to our purpose of advocating for quality sanitation for all people. 

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