Refugees
often find European toilets mystifying. Pictograms and instructions in Arabic
don't always have the desired effect - but help is on the way in the form of a
novel kind of toilet for all.
Deutsche Welle, 17 February 2016
The influx
of more than 1 million refugees last year is German society's "rendezvous
with globalization," according to Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.
It's
undoubtedly a rendezvous of different cultures. And in the rush to provide
housing, cots, clothing, food, language training and health care for the thousands
of newcomers, no one thought to explain Western-style flush toilets.
The mayor
of Hardheim, a small town in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg,
raised the issue in October - and was ridiculed for thinking it necessary to
admonish the town's asylum-seekers not to relieve themselves in gardens, parks,
behind hedges and behind bushes.
European
sanitation norms
The
difficult and often tense situation in overcrowded emergency refugee shelters,
tents and gyms isn't made easier by different toilet standards and rituals.
Squat
toilets are traditional in many parts of the Muslim world. Baffled by ordinary
Western-style flush toilets, refugees nationwide have squatted on toilet rims
or the floor of the bathroom when nature called; others have relieved themselves
in the shower stalls, leaving behind human excrement on the floors.
It's not a
central problem, says Manfred Nowak of Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO), a social
welfare organization in Berlin that currently looks after 4,000 refugees in six
initial reception facilities in the capital. But it does exist, he told DW,
adding that the severity of the problem depended on where the refugees were
from.
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| Many refugees find themselves confronted with outside portable toilets |
Many
migrants will have never seen toilet paper before, and even if they have,
water-free wiping is widely thought to be an unsanitary way of cleaning
oneself. Sit-down flush toilets are a mystery despite the pictogram
instructions that have meanwhile been put up.
Co-existence
of cultures
A remedy is
in the works, however: Sanitary specialists at the Global Fliegenschmidt toilet
manufacturers in Coswig in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt have come up with
a portable "multicultural toilet."
It's been
on the market for just a few days, company head Peter Fliegenschmidt told DW.
His company has sold squat toilet units for years, he said, but in the wake of
the refugee crisis in Germany, the challenge was to come up with a combined
Western-style/squat toilet. He has already received queries from organizations
that run refugee shelters.
His firm
specializes in portable toilets, which are currently in high demand for use in
emergency refugee shelters. "Generally, about 60 percent of our toilets
are found on construction sites, and about 30 percent are used at special
events like fairs and concerts," he said. Equipping refugee shelters is a
new development that's bound to be "temporary," he said, adding that
he saw a market for the new portable squat toilet abroad and at construction
sites, which often employ foreigners.
Fliegenschmidt's
design is actually surprisingly simple. It's a regular Western-style toilet
bowl with a sizeable squatting platform to the left and the right.
Different
body hygiene standards
Toilet
routines differ, and Islamic culture has detailed toilet etiquette.
Islamic
countries traditionally use water to wash. The myreligionislam.com website
lists 20 rules and practices "to be followed when answering the call of
nature." One rule stipulates using fingers to clean oneself, and "if
there are still traces," washing them with water. Cleaning the private
parts "with stones and similar materials" is regarded as an
"acceptable substitute for cleaning them with water."
Other rules
forbid talking, singing, smoking or reading the paper while on the toilet.
People are also advised to enter the bathroom left foot first, while exiting
with the right.
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