Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Magazine Ma

Sanitation please consider the following unreliable, unhygienic and not-so-easy aspects of flush toilets: • They often need to be scrubbed after each use, if they are going to be presentable. • They frequently need to be flushed more than once for everything to go away. • They occasionally get plugged and need to be cleared with a plunger, with sewage splashing or overflowing out. • They make so much noise that everyone in the building can hear when they get flushed. • The great turbulence of flushing creates a plume of microscopic, fecally contaminated water droplets that then land on everything in the bathroom, including the toothbrushes. So the reason Colon Cancer is skyrocketing in the Western World today is because we aren’t completely clearing our bowels, thanks to a custom-made invention for a morbidly obese queen? Yes, and not just colon cancer, but also constipation and hemorrhoids. The natural position human beings have used when defecating, over millions of years, since before we were people, has always been squatting. In this position, the outlet is straight and the body can eliminate its waste more easily, efficiently and completely. When sitting, the outlet is not straight, certain muscles contradict each other, one needs to push more, and not all of the feces come out, so there is more constipation, hemorrhoids, and the colon never gets a rest from being in contact with festering feces, causing a greater incidence of colon cancer). Squatting has the added advantage that it is more hygienic, especially with respect to women, since the user’s private parts do not touch anything. (Most women apparently never actually sit on a public toilet, but actually sort of hover above, which is much more uncomfortable than squatting all the way down.) Also, the squatting position is more accessible and intuitive for little children, since the floor is the same height for everyone, while a toilet bowl made for adults is much too big, uncomfortable and unsafe for them. Furthermore, in Urine-diverting Dry Toilets (UDDTs), the squatting position allows for a more certain separation of the urine and the feces, plus it is easier and cheaper to build. This is an excerpt of an interview which originally appeared in the CHEKHOVS KALASHNIKOV. Reproduced with permission. Please visit: www.chekhovskalashnikov.com/water-sanitation/ A Free Minimalist Urine-diverting Dry Toilet (UDDT) for the Unhoused, Poor or Disaster-stricken Shifting from wasteful, expensive, contaminating, water-based toilets to decentralized, environmentally friendly, dry toilets should be more a matter of paradigm shift than capital investment. This is especially true for those who have little money, are potentially living on the street, or are in the upheaval of an emergency. By Chris Canaday T he key things that a UDDT needs to do are: (1) jail up the potentially dangerous feces that may transmit many terrible diseases (including diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and intestinal worm eggs) long enough for these to die and (2) set the urine free on the soil, where it is excellent fertilizer for the plants and transmits no disease. This separation also greatly reduces the potential for stench and keeps the volume of dangerous material small and manageable. The following minimalist toilet is entirely functional and is made with just a few readily available materials that can be Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • March - April 2014 33

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