WASHINGTON — No one talks about it but everyone does it. On World Toilet Day, it’s time to shed the taboo on poo.

The United Nations observes Nov. 19 as a day of action to raise awareness about people who do not have access to a toilet. [custom_gallery]

The U.N. recognizes access to water and sanitation as a human right. One of its sustainable development goals by 2030 is for people worldwide to have access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene and end open defecation.

According to a UNICEF-WHO report, some 60 percent of the global population — or 4.5 billion people — either have no toilet at home or do not have a toilet that safely manages human waste. The report also found that 869 million people worldwide practice open defecation and have no toilet facility at all.

Women and children experience a significant impact when they do not have access to toilets or proper sanitation. The World Toilet Organization states that in 2013, 1,000 children per day died from diarrhoeal diseases related to poor sanitation; and lack of access to clean and safe toilets keep more girls out of school.

A 2015 study on sanitation stressors faced by women in India listed peeping or spying by men and rape or sexual assault as concerns they have, especially in relation to open defecation.

The study found that women experience infrastructure and physical barriers, such as bad weather, encountering animals, darkness, lack of space and distance of the toilet. Other stressors include social stigma and cultural beliefs, which includes encountering ghosts.

The Right to Pee campaign is made up of some 30 nongovernmental organizations in Mumbai, India, that started because men in the city do not have to pay to use urinals, but women are charged a fee just to pee, according to a New York Times article.

For those who have access to community or public toilets in poor or developing countries, these facilities may not be maintained. In February, The Guardian reported that three people died when a public toilet in a slum in eastern Mumbai collapsed.

Resolving people’s access to toilets and sanitation goes hand-in-hand with improving access to clean water. However, there are some technological innovations that hope to alleviate sanitation’s reliance on water. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $710,000 to a waterless toilet system. And, The Huffington Post reported that in Kenya, a company installed toilets that use sawdust instead of water to cover up waste and then turns the waste into fertilizer.