November 20, 2008

It's World Toilet Day Especially in this International Year of Sanitation, it's important to remember that 2.5 billion people do not have somewhere safe, private or hygienic to go to the toilet.

One gram of faeces can contain 10 million viruses, one million bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs. The simple act of washing hands with soap and water after going to the toilet can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by over 40%. Safe disposal of children's faeces leads to a reduction of nearly 40% in childhood diarrhoea I know we've talked about this a bit re: Year of Sanitation, but this is less about running water, and more about toilets, dammit! And speaking of toilets, What about those crazy German toilets? And the madness of the sitzpinkel? (First person to mention the forest gets clobbered.)

posted by Lara 16 years ago
  • Does that mean you have to clobber yourself?
  • I believe at least one billion of those people are homeless, and it's hard to have a toilet without a home, but why can't the rest of us start using a composting toilet like the Clivus Multrum, and begin saving our water and cleaning up our world? Getting rid of composted waste is no harder than getting rid of sewage sludge. And much less stinkier! The product from a Clivus smell like potting soil. We're already using human waste to fertalize. Not for the squeemish: In NYC, for example, several sewage treatment plants have dewatering facilities that use large centrifuges along with the addition of chemicals such as polymer to further remove liquid from the sludge. The removed fluid is called centrate is is typically reintroduced into the wastewater process. The product which is left is called cake and that is picked up by companies which turn it into fertilizer pellets. This product is then sold to local farmers and turf farms as a soil amendment or fertilizer, reducing the amount of space required to dispose of sludge in landfills
  • Never mind that my speling is fer the shits. It's the lack of that dang pervue button!
  • First person after me, that is.
  • A year in Germany with those viewing shelf toilets changed my relationship with my poo. I think they're probably something forced on the nation post-WWII as some sort of psychological effort to prevent the late '30s from recurring. I also learned sitting facing the wall does not work. Forest?
  • DON'T ASK ABOUT THE FOREST!
  • the first rule about the forest is...
  • (First person to mention the forest gets clobbered.) Does that mean you have to clobber yourself? I just lost the Game.
  • I read that they're planning on installing a urine-to-water reclamation unit on the space station. Next stop: stillsuits!
  • A reader writes: OK. I've looked at the German toilets. What happens if you pass a particularly long and well bound 'bum cigar'? Are you suppose to rise up into a semi-crouch as it is expelled, or will it curl elegantly like a well stowed ship's rope on the shelf? And what of 'explosive' defecations? Spash-back ensues, surely? Can someone explain this madness?
  • See also... It only took one comment for mention of India in my post! I suppose we are forever scarred of toilets and India...
  • Can someone explain this madness? Please don't. Inquiring minds do not want to know.
  • *launches dirty protest until someone tells*
  • TUM's name is a killing word.
  • Dunny
  • One for people, one for kitties? Am I right?
  • First rule of cats: cats don't share.
  • But what about the Teutonic Shitting Shelf!!???
  • I still can't wrap my head (figuratively, of course), around the Poo Shelf. Everything I've read says it evolved due to a cultural obsession with health in Germany. Apparently, it was felt to be vital to examine one's poo before flushing it. I had previously though that the Germans weren't that different from us, really. Now, I have to wonder...