From London to Sydney, Toronto to Timbuktu; cities from across the globe have been reimagined – using humble toilet rolls – in a special art work for WaterAid to mark World Toilet Day on Saturday 19 November.

Armed with just a pair of scissors, glue and tweezers, artist Anastassia Elias has created ten mesmerising tiny cityscapes inside toilet rolls to raise awareness of the 2.3 billion people without access to a safe, private toilet.

The toilet roll cities have been created alongside the release of ‘Overflowing Cities’ – WaterAid’s State of the World’s Toilet Report 2016 – which this year examines the state of city sanitation around the world.

Elias, who uses paper to build the intricate cityscapes inside toilet tubes, has chosen cities from both developing and developed countries; highlighting the fact that healthy cities are built on good sanitation. The cities she’s depicting are: London, New York, Toronto, Tokyo, Sydney, Stockholm, Bogota, Timbuktu, Dhaka and Agra.

For Anastassia, the idea of working with the toilet paper roll came naturally. She said “I have always enjoyed experimenting with materials that people might otherwise throw away.”

“People sometimes find it surprising that I make art out of such an ordinary, everyday household item but I think their size and my use of perspective helps to draw people in to another world.”

Watch Anastassia at work in this short film.

“I hope the exhibition will help raise awareness of the staggering 700 million people living in towns and cities across the world without access to a toilet, something which so many of us take for granted,” Anastassia said.

Photos: WaterAid/Neil Wissink