Every year on the 11th of March we celebrate world plumbing day. It is a time to recognise the importance of plumbing in our day to day lives and also to bring awareness to those people who still live without proper sanitary systems. As someone who spent 20 years in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, I have seen how primitive developing nations sanitary systems are. These countries do not recognise backflow prevention, in most areas there is no separation between sewer and storm water and in places where there is decent running water, there is normally damaged pipes underground allowing all nature of things to leach into the system. Persons who have money normally install filtration systems such as cartridge filters and UV protection on their houses, but a majority cannot afford such systems, so they are constantly being plagued by sickness and disease. Life without basic plumbing is often linked to lower living standards and serious health consequences and yet even today with all the advancement in technology the following still occurs – 2.1 billion people lack access to safe, readily available water at home 263 million people spend more than 30 minutes per round trip to collect safe drinking water 900 million schoolchildren have no hand washing facilities 4.5 billion people do not have toilets in their homes 361,000 children under 5 years of age die each year due to waterborne diarrhea So on this special day for plumbers, while spending a few extra seconds washing your hands with warm water, let's remember to think about those who are less fortunate than ourselves and if you get a chance jump online and donate to a charity who is building toilets in developing countries, or providing water filtration. Alternatively you can support organisations like ‘Who Gives a Crap’ which sell recycled toilet paper and repurpose 50% of their profits to build toilets for those in need. Obtaining clean and accessible water for everyone has to be our global goal.