Potty Parity - Clara Greed

We started this segment with a clip from the pop trio NERD, with their ode to what turns out to be an enormous demographic ... women waiting for a toilet. Today is World Toilet Day ... a day dedicated to improving sanitation conditions worldwide. Activists all over the world say access to sanitation is a key factor in improving the lives of women.

This year, the United Nations recognized sanitation as a human right. And yet all over the world, millions of women aren't able to exercise that right. We criss-crossed the globe to find out why that's the case ... what the consequences are and what's being done about it.

And we began with Clara Greed. She's a Professor of Inclusive Urban Planning at the University of the West of England. She was in Bristol.

Potty Parity - John Banzhaf

John Banzhaf is fighting a similar battle. He's a Professor of Pubic Interest Law at George Washington University Law School. He's also been called Father of Potty Parity in the United States. He was in Washington, D.C..

Potty Parity - John Smith

As we were researching this issue for the show, we heard a rumour that at some point in the 1990s, a Canadian MP had missed a vote in the House of Commons because there weren't enough washrooms to go around. The rumour suggested that this had led to a small, but significant revolution. We tracked the story down to Mary Clancy. She was the Liberal MP for Halifax until 1997. In 1993, Canadians elected 53 women to Parliament -- a record. And as Ms. Clancy tells it, the women's washroom couldn't keep up. We aired a clip.

Now so far this morning we've been talking about potty parity in the developed world which can be problematic. But, in the developing world, the fight for access to toilets can be a matter of life and death. That's why John Smith is raising money to build latrines in Kenya. He's a retired teacher in Hamilton, Ontario. He runs a charity called Connecting Countries Adopt-A-School. And as far as we can tell, he is the organizer of Canada's only World Toilet Day event.

Potty Parity - Lizette Burgers

Kenya is just one of the many countries without enough toilets. In India for example, more than six hundred million people live without toilets. And that poses serious risks ... especially for women and girls.

Lizette Burgers is UNICEF's Chief of Water and Sanitation Health in India. She was in Bangalore.

Last Word - Jamie Oliver

We ended the program today with a word from Jamie Oliver. He is, of course, the British celebrity cook known to some as The Naked Chef. And for the last seven years, he has been on a crusade to get kids the world over to eat better. That has meant taking on governments, school boards, parents and fast food restaurants.

You can hear Anna Maria's full interview with Jamie Oliver on Monday's program. In the meantime, he got the last word today.