Today is World Toilet Day, which is about taking action toensure that everyone has a safe toilet by 2030. Over 62% of people around theworld dont have access to safe sanitation with 4.5 billion living withoutaccess to a safe toilet.
As churches work to be open and welcoming to their community,having a toilet in church is becoming increasingly important and many parisheshave been contacting the Church Buildings team to discuss how they mightinclude both toilet and kitchen facilities in their buildings.
Church Buildings Officer, Mark Carter said: It may seemstrange that we dont have toilets in all our church buildings, but for many ofour rural churches, which can be listed buildings in the middle of thecountryside, its not always simple to install one! However, as churches areused more widely for worship and by the local community, this is definitelysomething to get right.
There are a number of different options for churchesconsidering installing a toilet, including a pod style design in church,using an anteroom, putting up a lean to extension or housing the toilet in acompletely separate outbuilding. Mark continued: We have some good examplesacross the Diocese of all of these options for other parishes to go and visitif theyd like to. Its also important to think about the types of drainagethat your toilet will use is it possible to connect to mains drainage or doyou need to investigate chemical disposal or composting options?
Parishes whod like to install a toilet in their church areencouraged to talk to Mark in the Church Buildings Office who can give adviceand link with other buildings who have had similar problems or come up withsimilar solutions. And if you already have a toilet in your church, why not considertwinning it with a toilet in a place where those in desperate poverty needaccess to a proper latrine, clean water and the information they need to behealthy. (https://www.toilettwinning.org)
