World Toilet Day: Accelerating change

There is much to be done. It’s a change we need to tackle now.

Some 3.5 billion people still have no access to safe toilets, 419 million people have no toilet facilities at all and relieve themselves in bushes, watercourses or the streets, and over 80% of sewage is discharged without any kind of treatment.

Where this happens, disease spreads: 1,000 children under the age of five die from it every day.

Progress grinds to a halt: millions of kids drop out of school.

And gender justice is not delivered: girls and women are the most disadvantaged.

Yes, much remains to be done, but we can do it.

To fast-track change, we need innovative ideas and to talk about them.

This is what we will be doing on 21 November. We are bringing together in a discussion four of the experts who know most about the needs of the global challenge we face:

· Jorge Vieira, Managing Director of Roca SA and responsible of We Are Water Foundation in Portugal, will chair the debate.

· Carlos Garriga, director of the We Are Water Foundation, will moderate the discussion. The We Are Water Foundation, a Roca Group initiative, has been helping to solve problems arising from the lack of water and sanitation in the world since 2010. Its projects have benefited over 3.7 million people in 38 countries.

· Pedro Álvaro is board advisor of Tejo Atlântico. He is an expert in one of the most pressing global challenges: addressing the problem of wastewater for health and the environment.

· Luiz Felipe Schmidt is director for Public Affairs, Communication & Sustainability at Coca-Cola, Portugal, one of the multinationals providing the greatest support for wastewater treatment. In 2015, it treated 145.8 billion litres of water in its plants and ran 248 community projects in 71 countries to build infrastructure and treat wastewater. Since then, it has recovered as much water as it uses in its annual operations.

· Ana Costa, Director of Sustainability & Blue Economy at consultancy firm BETA-I, has a degree in Environmental Engineering coupled with extensive experience in Portugal and Angola. Her work at BETA-I has enabled her to put in place collaborative innovation ecosystems.

We look forward to seeing you on 21 November from 5.30 to 7 pm at the Roca Lisboa Gallery.

Registrations here: https://bit.ly/3R061h1

(Mandatory registration)