The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-14471, in the name of Iain Gray, on world toilet day 2015—we can’t wait. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes World Toilet Day 2015, which aims to raise awareness of the need for proper sanitation and toilets and their importance to health, dignity, security and social and economic development across the world; notes with deep dismay reports that 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper sanitation or toilets, that in 45 countries fewer than half the population have access to adequate sanitation and that 2,000 children die each day from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation; notes that Equality, Dignity and the Link Between Gender-Based Violence and Sanitation is this year’s theme for World Toilet Day, aiming to highlight the threat of sexual violence that women and girls face due to loss of privacy and the inadequacy of toilet facilities to manage menstrual hygiene, as well as inequalities in usability for disabled and older people; congratulates Grace Warnock, a 10-year-old Prestonpans Primary School pupil, on her Grace’s Sign campaign to secure better door signs for accessible toilets in Scotland to raise awareness that they are not only for wheelchair users; welcomes what it considers the significant progress that Grace has already made with her campaign, including coming up with her own new design for door signs to show that they are also for people who are not visibly disabled and working with Independent Living in Scotland and Scottish Disability Equality Forum to engage with local authorities on improving the signage at their accessible toilets, and notes the call for action and urgency expressed in World Toilet Day’s tag line, We Can’t Wait, and the call for action now to meet the goal agreed at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September to “achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations” by 2030.
17:02
It does seem appropriate for us to have a debate marking world toilet day here in the city, famously, of “Gardyloo!” Although sanitation in this city started to improve a long time ago in the 18th century with the building of the new town and the understanding that municipal hygiene could save lives, 250 years later that is a message that is still to be heard by far too many, and still be acted on on behalf of many more.
For people in developed countries such as ours, flushing a toilet and turning on a tap are taken for granted. Toilets are the topic of the easiest and crassest of jokes, and the organisers of world toilet day are not blind to the comic potential of their endeavours, as their use of the slogan, “World toilet day 2015—we can’t wait”, shows.
However, the hard truth is that more than 650 million people in the world do not have access to clean water, and more than 2.3 billion do not have access to a safe, private toilet. Diarrhoea is one of the three most common killers of young children globally, along with pneumonia and malaria. Every year, around 60 million children are born into homes without access to sanitation. Around 315,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation—that is almost 900 children a day. It is clear that they can’t wait.
The worst thing about that is that this is a problem can be solved. Almost 60 per cent of those deaths could be prevented by clean water, sanitation and good hygiene, including hand washing with soap.
In September, the United Nations adopted new global goals on sustainable development. The entire world came together to agree a path to a fairer, more sustainable world—one in which extreme poverty has been eliminated and, no matter where someone is, they have enough food to eat, clean water to drink, a safe, private place to relieve themselves, and soap and water to wash with.
Goal 6 promises adequate, equitable access to water, sanitation and hygiene for everyone everywhere by 2030. There is a bonus to be had from that, because for every £1 invested in sanitation there is a return of around £4; health is improved; fewer days are lost to illness; and girls in particular stay on at school longer and complete their education. World toilet day is not a joke but important, and I am glad to be the one to have us mark it for—I think—the first time.
We do not always get toilets right here in Scotland either. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my young constituent, Grace Warnock of Prestonpans, who is in the public gallery this evening. Ten-year-old Grace has Crohn’s disease, but happily she is currently in remission. She previously had to use accessible disabled toilets when she was out and about because that enabled her to quickly access a toilet when she needed to and because such toilets have washing facilities to hand and enough space for her mum to help her.
Being able to use an accessible toilet affords Grace support and dignity when she needs it most. That should be straightforward enough, but Grace’s experience of using accessible toilets has sometimes not been positive. That is due in part to many people thinking that, if someone is not a wheelchair user or does not have another visible disability, they should not be using an accessible toilet. Grace responded by coming up with a great idea to help raise public understanding; she simply designed a new door sign to highlight the fact that not everyone who needs to use an accessible toilet uses a wheelchair or has a visible disability.
Grace also wrote to me, and I was able to arrange meetings for her with the independent living in Scotland project and the Scottish Disability Equality Forum, both of which have taken up her campaign. Grace and her campaign featured in The Big Issue, and she found a company willing to realise her design professionally. We now have commitments from South Lanarkshire Council, my and Grace’s home council of East Lothian and enjoyleisure, which runs our local leisure facilities, which have all agreed to trial Grace’s sign for real in their buildings.
Frankly, that is not bad for a 10-year-old, although it is worth saying that Grace clearly gets her flair for campaigning, not to say her unstoppable determination, from her mum, Judith, who has been with her every step of the way. They are a formidable team, and they are not going to be satisfied until Grace’s sign goes up on accessible toilets all over Scotland.
I must admit that, when I started this, I thought that there would be some body that we could find that had responsibility for this kind of signage and that, if we could win it over, the campaign would have won. However, it seems that there is no such body, so Grace and her mum are having to fight this pretty much one toilet door at a time. Grace was asked by the United Nations to help raise awareness of world toilet day and, indeed, its themes—so appropriate to her campaign—of equality and dignity. She decided to do so by collecting funny pictures of toilets from friends and family on her “Grace’s Sign” Facebook page, and members can see them there.
If the minster would like to do something very practical to mark world toilet day, here is my suggestion: agree to adopt Grace’s sign and use the Scottish Government’s offices to promote it throughout the public sector in Scotland. A little more dignity for all those who need accessible toilets: that is surely not too much to ask.
17:09
I congratulate Iain Gray on bringing the debate to the chamber this evening. He made the important point that although there might be a bit of behind-the-hand sniggering about the concept of debating toilets, it is important to remember first and foremost that there are many nations in the world where, as he rightly pointed out, the use of a toilet is hazardous to health and often extremely dangerous just in terms of accessing the toilet in the first place.
Iain Gray made some important points. I was interested to hear the example of his constituent because I have been in a similar situation with my son who, because he is not toilet trained, needs more space than a toilet cubicle often provides in order that he can use the toilet. He gets sensory overload from the sound of hand dryers, so it is extremely important that we can use an accessible toilet, because we know that we will be the only ones in there and we will not have to worry about somebody setting off a hand-dryer, which could trigger an autistic meltdown. When we emerge from such toilets holding the hand of our son who is walking freely, we are often met with sceptical looks because, as Iain Gray said, people associate the concept of accessible toilets with wheelchair users.
If Iain Gray wants to forward to me information regarding Grace Warnock’s campaign and her sign, I would be more than happy to receive it and to see whether I can do anything through my work with organisations including the National Autistic Society Scotland and in my constituency to promote this opportunity to change signage. The work that Grace is doing is commendable, but the more shoulders we put to the wheel, the more chance there is of making change. I would be happy to receive that information from Iain Gray and to have a conversation with him about it at some point.
I have been heavily involved in the changing places toilets campaign alongside the Profound and Multiple Impairment Service—PAMIS—which is leading the campaign in Scotland, and the changing places consortium, which is promoting the campaign. The issue first came to my attention when I shadowed Stephanie Chalmers, who is a carer from Turriff in Aberdeenshire whose son Connor requires hoist equipment in order to use the toilet. That experience outlined to me just how difficult it is for Stephanie and Connor to enjoy what most of us classify as a normal day out. It often requires military planning to know exactly where they can access a toilet facility that is suitable for Connor’s needs and to make sure that they are somewhere in the vicinity of that facility so that they can access it if the need arises. That is why I have been so impressed by the work that has been done, which has been driven by the changing places consortium and PAMIS and ably backed by the Scottish Government’s learning disability strategy, “The keys to life”. The target within that strategy has not just been met; it has been smashed, and work is continuing to promote changing places toilets.
One of the things that has been highlighted to me is the idea that such facilities can exist only in large venues. To some extent, that is true, so we need to see more large venues adopt changing places toilets. I know that Jenny Marra, who is about to speak, has called for such toilets at the Scottish exhibition and conference centre, and I have backed that call. I have written to football clubs in Scotland to encourage them to incorporate changing places facilities. I wrote last season to all the top-flight teams and the top three teams in the championship, which at that time were Hearts, Hibs and Rangers, but I received only three replies to the 15 letters that I sent—from Celtic, Dundee United and Aberdeen. I passed those replies on to PAMIS and I know that it has been trying to engage with the clubs concerned.
We do not have a single changing places toilet in Scotland’s airports. That needs to change. Until such time as we get such facilities in sporting venues, music venues and airports, many people will still feel that they are being denied the dignity that is afforded to the rest of us when we go to a venue, go on holiday or go for a day out.
I commend Iain Gray for bringing the debate to the chamber and for allowing us the opportunity to outline some very important points that relate to it.
17:13
I congratulate Iain Gray on securing this important debate and using it to highlight what is undoubtedly an important issue for many Scots. I also congratulate his young constituent on her assiduous campaigning on and commitment to the issue.
I was very interested to hear Mark McDonald’s speech. He is right—I want to use my time in this debate to talk about the changing places campaign. As Mr McDonald outlined, PAMIS has done a wealth of work supporting families who have children, brothers or sisters with profound and multiple learning disabilities. For them, days out, concerts or visits to a sports stadium are not the same. As Mark McDonald said, such operations must be assiduously planned around the available facilities. They need bigger toilet facilities that have hoists, more space and many extra features that changing places toilets provide. I understand that those toilets cost about £100,000 each to install; the Scottish Parliament has one that can be used by visitors to the building.
It is particularly important for people who need such toilets to be able to plan a day out just as every other family can, and to have the basic sanitation facilities that they need, as Iain Gray said. However, there are also issues in terms of accessible tourism. Parliament is committed on a cross-party basis to improving Scotland’s reputation for accessible tourism. How can tourism in Scotland be fully accessible if basic facilities such as proper toilets and changing places toilets do not exist in our cultural, social and sporting venues?
I was pleased to hear Mark McDonald say that he has written to a number of sports clubs in Scotland. I fully commend him for that work. I have written to SSE Hydro and the SECC to ask whether they will install changing places toilets. An incredible number of acts are coming to perform at the Hydro, but it is not accessible to many families because they cannot take their loved ones to the toilet.
I agree entirely with Jenny Marrra. Does she also accept and acknowledge that it is not just that families are prevented from going to such places but that when they do go, they often have to change their loved one on a toilet floor that can be dirty and wet? If nothing else, that is deeply undignified.
Mark McDonald is absolutely right. He and I have seen videos and heard families talk about such experiences. It would make for a much more dignified and civilised day out if such facilities were available.
I was pleased to hear that a changing places toilet has been installed at Murrayfield and that PAMIS has been doing a lot of work and campaigning on the issue. I ask the minister to express his commitment to the changing places campaign in his summing up.
I finish my contribution by paying tribute to Loretto Lambe who died recently. She spearheaded the campaign on behalf of PAMIS, but was sadly taken from us a few weeks ago. Her contribution to the campaign and families mean that she will be sorely missed.
17:17
When I first read the motion, I thought that it was a bit of a joke, or rather, a bummer. Indeed, I am not sure that it is not but it is also deadly serious, as we have heard from Mark McDonald, Jenny Marra and Iain Gray. I will have to be careful not to fill this speech with double entendre or more obvious toilet terms.
I find these world days, world weeks or world awareness weeks rather ridiculous because they seem to happen all the time. In this case, however, I have read the motion and I understand exactly what it is trying to achieve. Basically, it is about improving sanitation worldwide. At one point, I thought that it might be to do with the protest against City of Edinburgh Council closing the public toilets, but it is not.
Access to clean and safe sanitation, including toilets, is fundamentally important to human health, safety and dignity. It is therefore entirely right that the sustainable development goals prioritise access to safe sanitation for all. However, Governments declaring something to be a goal does not mean that it will happen and Government initiatives are the only way to make it happen. The changing places toilets are an example of that, and I will be interested to hear what the minister says on that. I have come across them, but when I was in another venue with another person, it was very undignified.
As the older United Nations development goals showed, much progress is brought about by economic development so, although it is worth promoting sustainable development goals, it is vital to put in place policies to help developing countries’ economies to trade freely. The United Kingdom Government has been at the forefront of international efforts to help sanitation projects in poor countries in which the inadequacy of toilet facilities is most marked. During the previous parliamentary session, the UK Government helped to provide more than 51 million people with access to water, sanitation and improved hygiene. That included supplying clean water and latrines to 340,000 people in Haiti with the help of local volunteers, reinforced by a public health education campaign to spread the word to 125,000 people in the area.
Of course, making a lasting difference in clean sanitation will take more than building some toilets. I read that Bathgate has recently been named as Scotland’s first toilet-twinned town. There were even schemes in India where people were paid to use toilets, because the existing public toilets had been left unused for a variety of reasons. I think that this should really have been called world sanitation day rather than world toilet day, because it is about ensuring the availability and the sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, wherever they are.
Taking this closer to home, in France there is a proliferation of toilets that have been modernised from the old pissoirs that we used to see in the streets. There are those famous pictures of men coming out buttoning their trousers. The French have a rather progressive—or should I say more open—attitude towards these matters and they now have toilets that people pay €1 to use, which automatically clean everything in sight, including possibly people’s bottoms if they are not quick enough.
Taking a more serious line, it is basic sanitation that needs improving, not just toilets, as we can see from the lack of access in some places around the world. It is an issue that needs thought and money to be spent on it. The debate is about more than toilets; it is about sanitation in general. I think that going to the toilet is a bit like death—when you gotta go, you gotta go.
17:21
I thank lain Gray for securing today’s debate and for recognising the importance of the issue to the public. Access to toilets is something that the majority of us in Scotland take for granted but proper sanitation has a major impact on people’s health, dignity and safety. That is especially true for girls and women around the world.
I was surprised to learn that 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper sanitation or toilets and that in 45 countries fewer than half the population have access to adequate sanitation. When preparing this speech, I took a look at the World Bank statistics on those countries and I was surprised to see India on that list. According to the data, only 40 per cent of the population has access to improved sanitation facilities. Another country on the list is Malawi, with 41 per cent access.
Improved sanitation is often a neglected area of investment when resources are scarce. It is generally seen as a result of economic growth, not as something that can enable growth. Countries with large and growing populations, such as India, have many challenges in improving sanitation, especially in rural areas. I have spent significant amounts of time in rural areas of India and Pakistan and I have seen for myself the impact that improved sanitation has on communities.
It is not just a matter of building sanitation facilities; we also need to encourage people to use the toilets and educate people on hygiene issues such as washing their hands properly, which has already been mentioned. We are basically asking people to break the habit of a lifetime and that is not easy.
The focus on gender equality is very important. In the absence of proper facilities, when seeking privacy, women might decide to go the toilet in the early morning hours or in the dark evenings. If women and girls are forced to manage their needs in the open, such as by the roadside after dark or in a field at dawn, they are particularly vulnerable to violence.
On another note, I congratulate Iain Gray’s constituent, Grace Warnock, on her campaign for better signs for accessible toilets. At a time when many local authorities are no longer providing public toilets, it is important that we provide accessible facilities for those in need. Many businesses display signs stating that facilities are for paying customers or for customers only. However, that causes problems for people who may not be visibly disabled but who need the toilet more frequently than others. I suggest that, in future, when businesses provide facilities, they should be open to all.
I congratulate Grace Warnock on her initiative and I wish her every success in it. I hope that the minister will take on board her suggestions, which were supported so validly by Iain Gray. I hope that we can change things for the people of Scotland and display to the rest of the world how the Scottish nation can, once again, lead on the issue.
17:25
I join members in congratulating Iain Gray on securing this debate to mark world toilet day 2015. I reiterate the point that others have made that there was potential for cynical commentary on the fact that we are holding this debate—indeed, there might still be. That would be a matter of regret, because the issue is important, as members’ thoughtful speeches have demonstrated.
Each speaker has in their own way raised awareness of the need for access to proper sanitation and the important contribution that that makes to gender equality, health, dignity, security, and social and economic development across the world. Many of us here in Scotland take that access for granted, although members have rightly raised issues about the domestic scene, which I will respond to in a few moments.
I will first reiterate the point that Iain Gray made about the sustainable development goals, which were agreed in September this year and which include the critical target of ensuring access to water and sanitation for all. I am sure that we all whole-heartedly support that goal. Around 2.5 billion people do not have access to adequate and safe sanitation. That is a global shame, and it presents a challenge that we must step up to and meet. World toilet day raises the issue and highlights the need for action today—action that cannot wait.
The global context is that water scarcity affects more than 40 per cent of people around the world, which is an alarming figure that is projected to increase with the rise of global temperatures as a consequence of climate change. Although much progress has been made—around 2.1 billion people have gained access to improved water sanitation since 1990—far too many, as I have set out, still do not have safe water or adequate sanitation.
That manifests itself in many negative ways. Every two minutes, a child dies of diseases that are related to diarrhoea and that could be prevented by improved water, sanitation and hygiene. In 2014, 159 million children worldwide were stunted due to malnutrition. One of the main causes is water-related disease such as diarrhoea that prevents the proper absorption of nutrients from food. Some countries lose as much as 7 per cent of their gross domestic product as a result of inadequate sanitation leading to water-related diseases that cause missed days at work due to illness or people caring for sick relatives. Every year, children take 443 million sick days because of water-related diseases, which means that they are missing out on their much-needed education. The problem is a major one that impacts on every continent. It is a problem for us all and it is therefore incumbent on us all to respond.
If we are to ensure universal access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030, we will have to invest in adequate infrastructure, provide sanitation facilities and encourage hygiene at every level. The Government is proud to be active in this area of global concern. Through our Scotland the hydro nation programme and our international development activity, we can try to make a difference.
We recognise that Scotland has much knowledge and expertise to offer the world in a range of key water resource management areas. Therefore, one focus of our hydro nation strategy in the years ahead will be on where Scotland can add value and contribute to solving global water issues. The sustainable development goal on water and sanitation will help to provide the global political context for our activity, as we work hard to deliver on our vision of Scotland as the world’s first hydro nation—a nation that manages its water environment to the best advantage and employs its knowledge and expertise effectively at home and internationally.
So far, the climate justice fund has been supported by hydro nation funds of £6 million and has delivered 11 water adaptation projects in Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia. Scottish Water has been a long-term supporter of WaterAid and has raised money and taken part in practical work and will continue to do so. Earlier this year in May, we hosted the 15th International Water Resources Association congress in Edinburgh, at which in the region of 1,000 delegates discussed ground-breaking research and the key global issues relating to water and sanitation.
We will continue to deliver practical projects on the ground and host and participate in the global discussions on water and sanitation issues. We will work with Governments such as the Government of Malawi to ensure that we support work that is appropriate for each country, has the engagement of local communities and makes a difference on the ground. For example, we have provided funding of just over £390,000 to support a project that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of impoverished families in Bihar in India. It aims to deliver health and hygiene workshops and will provide loans to clients to enable the installation of toilets, water systems and biogas stoves.
Of course, there is a domestic angle to the debate as well, and I will respond to some of the issues that were raised. The PAMIS changing places campaign was cited by Jenny Marra and Mark McDonald. As he will recall, I have met Mr McDonald to discuss the issues that the campaign has raised. As he mentioned, changing places toilets are recognised in “The keys to life”, the Scottish learning disability strategy, as an essential part of community facilities. Indeed, they are the key to community inclusion for people with complex needs.
There are now 120 accessible changing place toilets in Scotland. That is significant progress, but we still have further to go. In response to Jenny Marra’s point, I re-emphasise my support for the campaign and the further roll-out of facilities. We need to ensure a better geographic distribution of changing place facilities, and I accept that we need to work with some of the locations that can expect a high number of visitors to ensure that more of them have such facilities, too.
I welcome Grace Warnock to the public gallery. I congratulate her on her outstanding and imaginative awareness-raising campaign to secure better door signs for accessible toilets in Scotland. I am sure that Mr Gray is proud to be her MSP and rightly so. She has reminded us of the important fact that some conditions are hidden from view and, therefore, that accessible toilets are not only for people who use wheelchairs.
Mr Gray wrote to my colleague Maureen Watt about that matter, although Margaret Burgess responded. That facilitated a meeting for Grace with Heather Fisken, the project manager of the independent living in Scotland project. That has now moved forward, so that there is some work under way in South Lanarkshire, as Mr Gray mentioned. He also mentioned the work that is under way in East Lothian.
Mr Gray also made a request of me as the minister to consider how the Scottish Government can further promote accessible signage. I am certainly happy to examine the experience in South Lanarkshire to find out what lessons can be learned from that. Even before we reach that stage, I am also happy to find out what further steps we can take. I will consider the matter and come back to Mr Gray on it so that he can keep Grace up to date on the progress, because her campaign has undeniably made significant progress.
I congratulate Iain Gray on securing the debate. I join him in welcoming the significant progress that Grace Warnock has already made with her campaign. I note the vital importance of providing adequate and equitable access to sanitation in Scotland and around the globe.
Meeting closed at 17:33.Previous
Decision Time