The Big Necessity

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters by Rose George, Metropolitan Books, 2009. 

Dalit Scavengers

In India, there is still widespread discrimination against the Dalits (previously called the Untouchables). There are subdivisions of Dalits: (a) Tanners of animals, (b) Burners of corpses, (ccc) Sweepers (manual scavengers). It is only sweepers who are the scavengers of excrement. It is estimated that there are 400 thousand to 1.2 million manual scavengers in India. There are laws against manual scavenging, but they not widely enforced. Most manual scavengers are women. The manual scavengers are employed by municipalities, the army, and the railways, where open discharge toilets on trains requires the cleaning of excrement from the train tracks.

Open Defecation

Open defecation is the name for people going to the outskirts of the village to relieve themselves. Women do by pulling up their saris over their heads, so no one will recognize them. Indian women are often too embarrassed to go during the day, so they hold it in until dark.

Latrines

In recent years, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak created an inexpensive latrine called the Sulabh Shauchalaya. It has two pits, which take turns being covered with dirt and composted. Pathak has also developed public toilets, starting in Bihar in 1973. He owns these toilets and operates them on a pay-per-use basis. Number one is free, but number two is one rupee. The Indian government programs for providing people with free latrines failed to gain acceptance, because it was top-down. So the government has created Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), where villagers give input to the process.  Villagers are proud when they achieve ODF (Open Defecation-Free) status. The Nirmal Gram Puruskar prize is awarded to villages for being ODF and having toilets in homes and schools. In Orissa, the poorest state in India, the Gram Vikas program has motivated people by shame and by pride. One of their slogans is: “building dignity through toilets”. The program gives half the fine to toilet spies who report open defecators. 

Fertilizer

Excrement contains nitrogen and phosphorus, which are good for plants. The Chinese are less queazy about excrement than the Indians. In the 1930s, the Shit Queen ran a night soil business on Shanghai’s Golden Wharf. More recently, the rural areas are installing biogas digesters. The input is pig and human excrement, and the output is natural gas and fertilizer. The fertilizer is much less infectious than raw excrement. The units are small; one unit provides natural gas for cooking for one home. Other advantages include less stink from pig manure, less need for women to chop wood for the stove, reduction in the number of flies, and less diarrhea.

Bilharzia and Rice Paddies

Not using raw excrement in the rice paddies has greatly reduced the incidence of schistosomiasis (also called bilharzia), a parasitic worm.

Singapore

Jack Sim founded the Restroom Association of Singapore in 1998, the World Toilet Organization in 2001, and the World Toilet College (Singapore) in 2005. November 19 is World Toilet Day. 

Thailand

In Thailand, consciousness raising regarding excrement is similar to speaking openly about sex. As an example of the latter, the author mentions Dr. Mechai Viravaidya (a.k.a. Mr. Condom), who has opened the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant in Bangkok. 

Japan

In recent decades Japan has developed high-function toilets. Most of the population has adopted them. They have a geyser of warm water that washes the anus, and, in women, the vulva. The three main manufacturers are TOTO, Inax and Matsushita. 

Steps in Sewage Treatment

• Primary treatment: sedimentation in settlement tanks (or centrifuges);

• Secondary treatment: aeration and biological digestion by bacteria;

• Tertiary treatment: disinfection by sand filtration, heat or UV light. Biosolids (also known as sewage sludge) are the final product.

Contaminants in Biosolids:

Heavy metals, Toxic chemicals, Biological pathogens (bacteria, parasites and fungi).

Smelly Chemical Compounds in Biosolids:

• dimethyl sulfide,

• dimethylamine,

• carbon sulphide,

• hydrogen sulfide,

• methylamine,

• pyridine,

• thiocresol,

• trimethylamine.

Disposal of Biosolids

• fertilizer

• landfill,

• incineration,

• disposal at sea. 

Infections Transmitted by Feces

• botulism (bacterial),

• campylobacter, cholera (bacterial),

• cryptosporidium (protozoan),

• dengue fever (viral) ,

• dysentery (bloody diarrhea),

• giardia (protozoan parasite),

• hepatitis A (viral),

• hookworms (parasitic nematode),

• leptospirosis (bacterial),

• meningitis (inflammation of the covering of the brain or spinal cord),

• ringworm (fungal),

• roundworms (ascaris),

• salmonella (food poisoning bacteria),

• scabies (mite), schistosomiasis (bilharzia, parasitic flatworms),

• shigellosis (bacterial),

• tapeworms (parasitic flatworms),

• typhoid (bacterial).