When the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge flooded the internet a couple of months ago, there were thouuuusands of pretty similar videos made, in which people dropped some ice cubes in a bucket, and tipped the bucket on their head. It was all for a good cause, but after watching 20 or 30 of them, I found that I got more stimulation out of watching the compilation videos of people getting their Ice Bucket Challenge horribly wrong.

Yep, that makes me a bit of a bad person, though my ex-girlfriends were probably of that opinion even before this. Bless them.

Anyway, Matt Damon got in on the Ice Bucket Challenge craze, and did something different with it. For years now, he's been actively involved in increasing access to adequate water and sanitation around the world. As a co-founder of Water.org, Matt decided to roam around his house and collect toilet water for his Ice Bucket Challenge, and essentially went swimming in his toilet.

His point is a good one, though - billions of people in the world don't have access to drinking water that is anywhere near the standard of toilet water in the developed world, and it's a big problem. The absence of clean water and toilets is making people sick, and holding them back from studying, working, and being in charge of their own destiny.

World Toilet Day is coming up on November 19, and it's a chance to highlight the problem. Compared to some of the problems in the world, this is an easy one: solutions are available for it.

Check out the World Toilet Day site to find out more about what's got Matt Damon so passionate!

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Michael Wilson