India’s toilet champion sees human liberation in loos for all
Toilets liberate human beings - and
water
Sulabh public toilet design
For India’s low-cost toilet champion, each new loo means freedom not just from rampant disease, but one more chance to liberate someone from doing the awful job of disposing of someone else’s waste.
In the centuries-old caste system, with its ingrained fear of “pollution,” the deepest revulsion has traditionally been reserved for those who do India’s dirty work, such as taking away human waste from homes in buckets.
“What did society do for them? It made them into ‘untouchables.’”
For more than three decades Bindeshwar Pathak, who founded the sanitation promotion organisation Sulabh (Convenience), has been promoting toilets that are cheap to build and don’t require a sewer connection.
Pathak says western toilets based on sewage pipes and abundant water will never get the job done in the developing world, where more than 99 percent of the loos are needed.
Pathak is (now) promoting an environmentally-friendly toilet system that recycles human waste into biogas without releasing greenhouse gases. The gas can then be piped for electricity or cooking.
The World’s diminishing access to potable water is at least as critical as sanitary pooping. Kudos to Pathak - for combining multiple necessities.
Posted: Tue - November 6, 2007 at 06:09 AM