World Toilet Day 2021
The Soroptimist Welfare Association (SIBC) got together with MES Pillai College of Architecture, Navi Mumbai to observe World Toilet Day – an official United Nations international observance day falling on 19 November every year to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. This action is linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goal of “water and sanitation for all by 2030”. One can read more about it here: https://www.un.org/en/observances/toilet-day.
The main activity for observing the World Toilet Day is conceptualising an annual inter-college design competition named as NIRMAL in partnership with MES Pillai College of Architecture. This was initiated in 2020.This year, NIRMAL 2021 was open to students of 9 architecture colleges in Navi Mumbai and Panvel area. A special guest lecture by Ar. Pratima Joshi, Executive Director of Shelters Associates was organised on 19 th November to mark the occasion of the World Toilet Day. This NGO works for improving living conditions in slums and informal settlements where housing and sanitation are their major focus.
The lecture recording can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYCKFfh2jRo
The theme for the design competition was ‘Sustainable Sanitation for Informal Settlements’.On 20 th January, 2022, an online prize distribution ceremony was organised to announce the winners of the design competition. It was attended by participating students, faculty members, members of SIBC and NASI members. The winning entries were screened along with the jury comments. Our President, Ms. Yvette Lee did the honours of virtually handing over the prizes to the winning teams.
