Modi hails toilet 'milestone' as India marks Gandhi's 150th

Yahoo – AFP, Premal Balan with Aishwarya Kumar and Abhaya Srivastava in New Delhi, October 2, 2019

Experts say millions still lack access to a toilet, and that because of old habits many
of the tens of millions of new facilities that have been built are not even being used
(AFP Photo/Prakash SINGH)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday declared the country of 1.3 billion people free of open defecation, and turned his sights towards eradicating single-use plastic next.

Modi -- whose claim has been challenged by experts -- made his ambitious "latrines for all" pledge when he first took office in 2014 and his announcement late Wednesday coincided with the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, an icon not just for Indian independence but also sanitation.

"In 60 months, 600 million people have been given access to toilets, more than 110 million toilets have been built," Modi said in a speech to 20,000 village chiefs in western Ahmedabad city in his and Gandhi's home state of Gujarat.

"The women of our country no longer have to wait for darkness to descend. Innocent lives of young children are being saved... the expense on healthcare has come down," Modi added, calling the achievement a significant milestone for the vast developing country.

However, despite huge progress, experts have expressed scepticism about his bold claim, saying millions still lack access to a toilet, and that because of old habits many of the new facilities that have been built are not being used.

Modi acknowledged that challenges remained, saying "we have to continue the journey to make India clean. We have to make this change in behaviour permanent".

"We have to make sure that the toilets are used for the purpose for which they have been built. People who are still left out must be connected to (them)."

Plastic-free ambitions

Modi, who stormed to a second term in office in May, also pledged to embark on another major project -- to eradicate the country of single-use plastic.

"Plastic is a big danger to health, environment and cleanliness. We must achieve the target of making India plastic free by 2022," he said, reiterating a recent promise.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that India is "open-defecation free" has been 

questioned by experts, who cite data from rural as well as urban areas (AFP Photo/

Prakash SINGH)

While some states have already banned the use of such plastics, enforcement of the rules has been lax.

"I know that the use of plastic bags has already come down. Millions of households have taken a decision not to use single-use plastics," he said.

"This will benefit the environment. Roads and sewers won't get blocked. Cattle and marine life would be saved."

Toilet claim doubts

Modi's claim that India is "open-defecation free" has been questioned by experts, who cite data from rural as well as urban areas.

"Latrine ownership increased from about 35 percent to about 70 percent... That did accelerate the reduction of open defecation," said Sangita Vyas from the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE).

"But in December 2018 we estimated about half of people in the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan still defecated in the open," she told AFP.

She doubts the shortfall has been made up since. Those four states are home to more than 450 million people.

For instance across from Modi's office, on the other side of New Delhi, Vijaya relieved herself next to the tracks near Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station early in the morning.

"There is no toilet (where we live). We all go out in the open," she told AFP.

"We have been here for years and nobody has constructed a toilet, despite our repeated pleas," Kaveri, a domestic helper, said in her nearby home in the poor neighbourhood of Barapullah.

"We go out in the public and it's not safe, but what do we do?" said the mother-of-three.

Many of the toilets that have been constructed are often locked, used for storage, or some other purpose.

Cultural barriers, engrained habits or a lack of knowledge about sanitation also create barriers to more widespread usage.

"If you're going to change the behaviour of rural folk on a sustainable, long term, permanent basis, the only way you're going to be able to do it would be by first focusing on behaviour change," Santosh Mehrotra, a development economist at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told AFP.

Toilet controversy: India's Modi ignores protests to collect Gates award

Yahoo – AFP, September 25, 2019

The decision to honor Narendra Modi provoked several withering op-eds and the ire
of three Nobel prize winners, citing rising attacks against minorities under his tenure
(AFP Photo/STEPHANIE KEITH)

New York (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday brushed aside an outcry from human rights activists to receive an award from the Gates Foundation in New York for his efforts to end open defecation.

The decision to honor the Indian leader provoked several withering op-eds and the ire of three Nobel prize winners, citing rising attacks against minorities under Modi's tenure, while British-Asian actors Jameela Jamil and Riz Ahmed who had been due to attend dropped out.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it respected the critics' views but defended its decision, saying sanitation is a neglected issue and India's program can serve as a model for other countries.

"I dedicate this award to all those Indians who transformed the 'Clean India Mission' into a people's movement and started giving cleanliness the highest priority in their daily lives," Modi said after collecting the award from billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

India's government says it has built more than 100 million toilets under a $20 billion initiative begun in 2014 to address the issue of open defecation, particularly in rural areas, a major public health issue in the country.

Under Modi's plan, tribal households get $200 each for building latrines.

But ahead of the ceremony, Nobel Peace Prize winners Mairead Maguire, Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman and Shirin Ebadi said that under Modi's leadership, "India has descended into dangerous and deadly chaos that has consistently undermined human rights, democracy.

"This is particularly troubling to us as the stated mission of your foundation is to preserve life and fight inequity," they wrote, urging the Gates Foundation to change its decision.

In addition to a rise in mob lynchings of Muslims, Christians, and Dalits, they noted the decision by Genocide Watch to issue warnings for the state of Assam and Indian-administered Kashmir.

The disputed territory is under a communications blackout that has lasted 50 days after Modi rescinded its autonomy.

The award was also protested in an online petition that garnered 100,000 signatures as well as a comment piece co-authored by feminist leader Gloria Steinem.

Modi won a second term in a huge election victory in May and drew tens of thousands of diaspora fans on Sunday in an unusual joint rally in Houston with President Donald Trump.

He did not respond to the criticism over the award.

The Gates Foundation told AFP in a statement: "Before the Swachh Bharat mission, over 500 million people in India did not have access to safe sanitation, and now, the majority do.

"The Swachh Bharat Mission can serve as a model for other countries around the world that urgently need to improve access to sanitation for the world's poorest."

Startups tackle Indian women's toilet woes

Yahoo – AFP, Abhaya SRIVASTAVA, 30 September 2018

Prime Minister Narendra Modi says his government has made significant
progress in improving access to toilets in India

With her bladder fit to burst on a recent ride with an all-female motorbike club, Vidhi Malla chugged on her 350cc "Thunderbird" into a fancy highway eatery near New Delhi and rushed to the toilet.

But to her disgust, if not to her surprise, the facilities stank and the seat was splattered with urine, forcing the 34-year-old to get back on her bike and wait till she got home.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will trumpet progress in improving access to toilets at a Delhi convention starting this weekend -- but as Malla's experience shows, there is still a long way to go.

Some help is at hand from local startups providing ways to avoid coming into contact with or clean up filthy toilet seats, which doctors warn pose a health risk to many women.

"Toilets are a huge issue. Once I caught an infection from using a loo in a big hotel," Malla, a public relations consultant, told AFP.

Malla's friends in her bike gang recounted their own horror stories -- from bins overflowing with used toilet paper to wiping the seat with the edge of their dresses.

Using a dirty toilet, not drinking enough water or holding urine for a long time puts women at a greater risk of urinary tract infections, a painful complaint that half of women report having had at least once.

India's first female urination device costs 200 rupees ($3) for a pack of ten

Indian toilets "are a breeding ground for infections", gynaecologist Anshu Jindal told AFP.

New businesses tackling the problem are tapping into a feminine hygiene sector forecast by Euromonitor to grow to $522 million by 2020 from $340 million now as India's middle class swells.

India's first female urination device, the PeeBuddy, is a simple candy-green cardboard funnel laminated with water-resistant coating allowing women to keep their distance from loo seats.

PeeSafe meanwhile, dispensed from a purple spray can, is a seat sanitiser.

"We have sold 750,000 units in the last 18 months and we are now present in 10 other countries," said Vikas Bagaria, founder of PeeSafe.

Innovations like these have helped to "liberate" women like Malla, she says, meaning they don't have to think twice before hitting the road.

Stand-and-pee

Such issues are set to figure highly at the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention, running from Saturday to Tuesday.

A lack of sanitation remains a big problem in India, and doctors warn unclean 

toilets are a health risk for women

The event, coinciding with Gandhi's 150th birthday, is hosted by Modi with UN chief Antonio Guterres in attendance alongside ministers and experts.

A lack of sanitation remains a burning issue for India -- and much of the developing world -- despite an aggressive drive by Modi's government since he came to power in 2014.

His government says it has slashed the number of people forced to defecate in the open from 550 million in 2014 to less than 150 million today.

But the state of existing toilets still shocks. The capital Delhi, for example, a megacity teeming with 19 million people, has just a few hundred public washrooms.

A survey of 200-odd toilets by Action Aid last year found 70 percent of them unclean and without a water supply.

Entrepreneurs abroad have also created products to help women but they are often prohibitively expensive in a country where hundreds of millions of people live on less than a dollar a day.

For instance the reusable, silicone GoGirl stand-and-pee device costs $9.99 apiece in the United States, while the Shewee goes for $12.

But a pack of 10 single-use, locally produced PeeBuddy funnels costs 200 rupees ($3) and a pack of two PeeSafe 75 ml sprays 350 rupees.

Deep Bajaj, the brains behind PeeBuddy, came up with the idea during a road trip when he noticed women in his group were not drinking anything.

"Men are so blessed, we can stand and pee almost anywhere," Bajaj told AFP, checking a consignment for dispatch at his chock-a-block warehouse.

Dutch firm to recycle babies’ nappies to produce sustainable energy

DutchNews, September 18, 2018 

Waste processing plant ARN is building a separate facility for recycling babies’ nappies in an initiative supported by 8 local councils in the Nijmegen region. 

Babies use around 5,000 nappies until they are potty trained, with half a million nappy wearing children each year, sustainability advisor Milieu Centraal has calculated. More elderly are people are using incontinence pads as well. 

The process involves placing the nappies in a reactor which reaches temperature of up to 250 degrees at high pressure. ‘The nappies, including their contents of urine and faecal matter, become liquid and separate into different materials,’ process developer and patent holder Willem Elsinga told broadcaster NOS. 

‘The high temperature gets rid of the bacteria, traces of medication and viruses so all the products we make from the diapers will be safe. Otherwise we couldn’t sell them,’ the broadcaster quotes him as saying. 

The plant will turn the diapers into four products: green gas, plastics, fertiliser and biomass, which Elsinga says, can be used as an alternative for coal to fire coal plants. 

An earlier initiative to recycle diapers in Arnhem ten years ago failed. According to Elsinga that experiment came too early. ‘Everything has to be right: enough diapers, affordable technology and a market that is ready for the products at the end of the line.’ 

But now local councils are trying to reduce the amount of left-over waste after traditional glass, paper and plastics recycling. ‘We are producing between 150 and 200 kilos of residual waste per head of the population and local councils are keen on separate waste collection. This sort of thing fits in perfectly,’ Elsinga told NOS. 

If all goes according to plan, the new plant will come into operation in December.

Fed-up with a growing mountain of stinking disposable nappies, a Dutch firm has started building the country's first recycling plant to turn poo into profit https://t.co/B7ettpjAZQ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 18, 2018

Xi orders China's 'toilet revolution' to march on

Yahoo – AFP,  November 27, 2017

China's 'toilet revolution' was launched in 2015 as part of efforts to make restrooms --
often squat toilets with no paper -- more tourist-friendly (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

Beijing (AFP) - China's president has ordered the country to march on in its "revolution" to clean up notoriously dirty and foul-smelling public bathrooms in a bid to improve quality of life and boost tourism.

The so-dubbed "toilet revolution" was launched in 2015 as part of efforts to make restrooms -- often squat toilets with no paper -- more tourist-friendly.

President Xi Jinping said the toilet problem "is not a small thing" and cleaning up is necessary to create a "civilised" urban and rural environment, China's state news agency Xinhua reported Monday.

The country expects to have added or upgraded more than 70,000 toilets by the end of this year.

Another 64,000 will be built or enhanced between 2018 and 2020, the National Tourism Administration has said in an action plan.

According to Xinhua, since taking office in 2012, Xi has made a point on rural tours to ask villagers whether they did their business in flushable toilets or pits dug into the ground.

"In rural areas, some toilets were little more than makeshift shelters surrounded by bunches of corn stalks, and some were open pits next to pigsties," the agency said.

"Local authorities are now more aware of the important role toilets play, believing better toilets are not only beneficial for tourism, but can also... enhance the overall level of civilisation of society."

China's infamous "squatty potties" arouse fear in some would-be tourists, with several tourism blog posts dedicated to the subject.

While studies have indicated that squatting may have health benefits over sitting, the position is still hard to accept for those accustomed to porcelain thrones.

Public bathrooms in China have also been known to be bereft of toilet paper thanks to enterprising crooks sneaking out entire rolls for their personal use. Facial recognition is now employed in some places to limit individual toilet paper portions.

Internet commenters applauded the restroom remodelling movement on Chinese microblogging site Weibo on Monday.

"Support the toilet revolution," one user wrote. "Seriously, whether it's in a city or the countryside, when nature calls, it's always a hassle to find a decent bathroom."

New Delhi museum tries to break taboos surrounding toilets in a country where such convenience remains a sensitive issue

New Delhi museum tries to break taboos surrounding toilets in a country where such convenience remains a sensitive issue pic.twitter.com/X0rR1hgJab

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 19, 2017

Related 

Pee'd off: Dutch women test urinals in public loo protest

Yahoo – AFP, September 23, 2017

A Vespasienne or pissoir is a public street urinal invented in France that is common
across Europe -- but is it suitable for women? (AFP Photo/JACQUES DEMARTHON)

The Hague (AFP) - Fed up with the shortage of public toilets for women? Dutch women took the matter to the streets Saturday in a protest aimed at showing the impossibility of using urinals that are exclusively designed for men.

"Women from across the country are invited to demonstrate the (im)possibilities of urinating in a public urinal built for men," said the organisers of the Netherland's First National Public Urinal Urinating Day, or "Power to the Peepee."

By mid-afternoon, more than 160 largely discreet images had been posted on Instagram under the hashtag #zeikwijf -- a Dutch word meaning "a woman who urinates" -- many showing protesters attempting ambitious gymnastic poses to get the angle right.

While admitting the protest would be somewhat "tongue in cheek", organisers have a serious message, saying they want to prove "that it isn't possible for women to urinate in a decent, hygienic and dignified manner in a public urinal designed for men."

The aim of the protest is to draw attention to the lack of public toilet facilities for women with the images to be sent to Jet Bussemaker, the Dutch minister for Education, Culture and Science alongside a petition entitled "Urination Equality in the Netherlands".

In an example of the problem, organisers say there are 35 permanent public urinals in central Amsterdam compared to three public toilets suitable for women.

The protest was organised by a woman called Geerte Piening who was found guilty earlier this week of public urination in a place where there was no toilet for women for miles around.

Fining her 90 euros, the judge said she could have used a public urinal, saying: "it may not be pleasant, but it is possible."

Related Article:

You could have used a urinal, judge tells woman caught peeing in public

Indian woman wins divorce over lack of toilet

Yahoo – AFP, August 20, 2017

An Indian urinates on a wall in front of a poster in Hyderabad for the Hindi film
"Toilet", about one man's battle to build toilets in his village (AFP Photo/NOAH SEELAM)

Jaipur (India) (AFP) - An Indian court has given a woman permission to divorce her husband because their home did not have a toilet, forcing her to seek relief outdoors.

The family court in the northwestern state of Rajasthan ruled on Friday in favour of the woman, who argued that her husband's failure to provide an indoor toilet during their five years of marriage amounted to cruelty.

Justice Rajendra Kumar Sharma said women in villages often endured physical pain waiting until darkness to relieve themselves outdoors.

The judge labelled open defecation -- a major health problem in India -- disgraceful and deemed it torture to deny women a safe environment for relief, the woman's lawyer Rajesh Sharma told AFP.

Divorce is only granted in India if proof such as cruelty, violence or undue financial demands are shown in court.

It is not the first time a marriage has been called off over a toilet.

Last year a woman refused to tie the knot in Uttar Pradesh state after her fiancé refused to build a toilet for the couple.

In June another woman refused to return to the home of her in-laws until they constructed a toilet.

Nearly half of India's population -- almost 600 million people -- defecate in the open, according to UNICEF.

Some 70 percent of Indian households do not have toilets, although 90 percent have access to mobile phones.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to build a toilet in every home by 2019 in a bid to stamp out open defecation.

The government says 20 million toilets have been constructed since the start of the scheme in 2014.

But experts say open defecation not only stems from poverty but a belief that toilets inside the home are unclean.

MPs demand answers on ‘toilet contracts’ for nursing homes

DutchNews, November 2, 2016    

Junior health minister Martin van Rijn has come under pressure from MPs over reports that care homes have asked elderly residents to sign contracts restricting how often they can use the toilet. 

The Grootenhoek care home in Hellevoetsluis, near Rotterdam, admitted it had designated fixed toilet breaks in a contract with one resident to reduce pressure on its staff, but insisted it was not policy. The contract fixed the male resident’s daily toilet times at 11am, 2pm and 6pm. 

Sjoerd Potter, an MP for the governing Liberal (VVD) party, called on Labour (PvdA) minister Van Rijn to investigate the incident, which was first reported by local news network RTV Rijnmond. ‘This ridiculous behaviour by the care home needs to stop today. This is not how we treat our elderly people.’ 

Henk Krol, leader of the 50Plus party, said he would be submitting questions in Parliament. He said he had encountered unusual practices in care homes before, but added: ‘Nothing has left such a bitter taste as this.’ 

Careyn, the company that manages the care home, is on a list of underperforming care providers that Van Rijn published in July. The company was placed under ‘intensive extra supervision’, the highest of four categories of intervention available to care inspectors.

Utrecht council goes for ‘gender neutral’ toilets

DutchNews, July 1, 2016

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Utrecht city council has become the first in the country to vote to introduce gender neutral toilets throughout council-owned buildings. 

The aim is to make transsexuals feel more comfortable about which toilets they use and remove discussion with other users, supporters of the plan said. 

Gay and transgender rights lobby group COC has been campaigning for the introduction of gender neutral toilets for some time. 

The motion to make the switch came from Liberal democratic party D66. ‘As an open house of democracy in the heart of the city, this is a fine symbolic place to begin with toilets for everyone,’ the party said in a statement. 

It is not clear if the town hall will retain some men and women’s toilets for people who feel uncomfortable sharing facilities. 

If the switch to unisex toilets is a success in the town hall, the concept will be used in other council buildings. 

There are already mixed toilets in Amsterdam and Leiden university college buildings.

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announces the military will lift its ban on

 transgender troops, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC on June 30, 2016

(AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

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"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)

“… Gender Switching

Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."

It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”

Wee are not amused: $40k toilet for Thai princess unflushed

Yahoo – AFP, 23 February 2016 

Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen walk

 past honor guards upon her arrival at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on 

February 22, 2016 (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

A luxury commode custom-built for a Thai princess's visit to Cambodia was left unused despite its hefty $40,000 price tag, local officials said Tuesday, in a poor country where the majority of rural dwellers do not have access to a toilet.

The convenience was built for a visit on Monday by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to Yeak Lom lake in northeastern Cambodia.

But her two-hour visit ended without her ever having experienced the lavish water closet, community leader Ven Churk told AFP.

The toilet was later "removed" and the adjoining bathroom will now be turned into a security post for tourists visiting the tree-ringed lake, he added.

"She (the Princess) did not go inside the bathroom, she just looked at it from outside and took some pictures," he said.

The toilet took more than two weeks to build and cost an estimated $40,000, Ven Churk told AFP.

Thai princess gets $40K toilet built for Cambodia  …Play videoThai princess gets $40K toilet built for Cambodia  …
"I have never seen such a bathroom," he said.

Provincial governor Nhem Sam Oeun confirmed the toilet was unused, adding the loo is "very modern, very good... it can't be kept because it is for royals."

The Thai side covered the construction costs, he added.

Local media reports said the luxury pan was built by the Siam Cement Group, a Thai construction giant partly owned by the Crown Property Bureau, which manages the Thai royal family's assets and investments.

SCG could not be reached for comment.

While the pricey privy has made international headlines it has not received any media attention in Thailand, where a severe lese majeste law punishes any perceived criticism of the royal family with up to 15 years prison.

Tin Luong, the chief of Yeak Lom commune, told AFP he was impressed by the "very beautiful" bathroom.

"Thai engineers have constructed the bathroom," he said confirming all of the materials were brought from Thailand.

"I estimate that it could cost up to $40,000 to build the bathroom. It looks like a house with beautiful decoration," he added.

Figures released last year by UNICEF said 61.5 per cent of Cambodians living in rural areas practice open-defecation -- one of the highest rates in Southeast Asia -- as they have no access to latrines.

Thailand's monarchy is among the world's richest, with its fortune in part built through investments in major local businesses such as SCG and Siam Commercial Bank.

After visiting the lake, the princess opened a new health centre that was donated by the Thai royal family. She also met with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen during the visit, which ends on Wednesday.

European toilets a mystery to many refugees

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.

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.

The Netherlands’ first poo bank wants your deposits

DutchNews, February 10, 2016

Donated blood, sperm, and internal organs are always in hot demand, but the Dutch Faeces Donor Bank wants to add poop to the list. 

The bank opened on Tuesday in Leiden, and hopes to collect the faeces of generous donors for to treat colostridium difficile, a bacteria which causes infection of the large intenstine, Leiden University said. 

Colostridium difficile affects around 3000 patients annually, and usually occurs after antibiotic treatment for other illnesses. While most patients recover normally, about 5% suffer recurring infection. For this, a fecal transplant is the only effective treatment. 

‘The effectiveness of the feces transplant in patients with a clostridium difficile infection has been proven in 2013. Since then, the treatment has been included in national and international guidelines,’ said LUMC professor Ed Kuijper. 

Safe and accessible

The faeces stored in the bank is screened for diseases and is available to doctors and hospitals across the country. In addition, the LUMC provides training for the doctors who will carry out the transplants. 

With cases of colostridium difficile expected to rise, the bank is looking for stool donations from healthy people around the Leiden area. 

As a new treatment, Kuijper understands that people may be slow to come forward. ‘It’s not established yet, like giving blood is. I think it’s a matter of getting used to it,’ he said. 

People who want to donate their feces can contact the bank at info@NDFB.nl. 

Strong public health message on UN World Toilet Day

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has been leading calls for improved sanitation on World Toilet Day. Billions still suffer from a lack of proper toilets and the accompanying, heightened risk of serious illness.

Deutsche Welle, 19 Nov 2015

The United Nations says 2.4 billion people around the world don't have access to decent sanitation and more than a billion are forced to defecate out in the open. The world's population is currently just under 7.5 billion.

The UN launched World Toilet Day (19.11.2015) with a strong public health message. Poor sanitation, it said, increases the risk of illness and malnutrition, especially for children.

The UN also said that women and girls in particular need safe, clean facilities.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that one in three women around the world had no access to safe toilets. "As a result they face disease, shame and potential violence when they seek a place to defecate."

In Ghana's Northern region, it's estimated that seven out of ten people - men, women and children - have no access to toilet facilities, neither in their home nor in public spaces.

But some people who have access to public toilets prefer the bush. "Inside the toilet it is always hot, it is better to consider the forest. Also they don't keep them clean. That's the main reason why I won't use a public toilet," one man in Tamale told DW.

DW visited a public toilet in Tamale where people pay a small gratuity. It was in a filthy condition.

"Toilets can't always be cleaned. Sometimes the caretaker will have additional work somewhere else so he has no time to keep things clean," the toilet attendant said.

Ban Ki-moon:'We have a moral
imperative to end open defecation'

An estimated 18,000 Ghanaians, including 5,000 children under the age of five, die every year from ailments related to poor sanitation.

Convention and customs?

The UN Millennium Development Goals, which are supposed to be achieved this year, call for the halving of the proportion of the population without access to basic sanitation.

Ban said that by many accounts, this will be "the most-missed target."

In 2013, the UN launched a campaign to end defecation in the open by 2025. In sub-Sharan Africa, 36 percent of the population were not using toilets in 1990. Twenty-five years later that figure now stands at 25 percent.

In a World Toilet Day press release, the UN says open defecation is deeply rooted in poverty, but has also been linked to convention and customs in some countries and societies. It represents some of the only times other than worship where women from rigid family circumstances may meet one another.

Maxwell Suuk in Tamale contributed to this report.