Posted on 10/16/2007 6:10:26 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
Health and sanitation experts from 40 countries will meet in New Delhi later this month for the seventh World Toilet Summit to find ways to provide toilets for everyone by 2025.
An estimated 2.6 billion people have no access to a proper toilet, according to the World Health Organization. More than half of them live in India or China.
In India alone, half a million people are employed to transport raw sewage, often carrying it on their heads, from makeshift toilets to dumping grounds. Although the practice - known as manual scavenging - is officially banned, a lack other employment opportunities has made it politically difficult for the authorities to act.
Defecating in the open can contaminate water supplies and spread diseases such as diarrhoea, which kill many thousands of people every year.
The four-day conference begins on Oct. 31.
Wow, they beat out San Francisco.........
And I thought my job sucked.
yah...what good is giving all people a toilet if they don’t know what to do with it?? Besides, you need to provide a sewer system, sewage treatment facilities, and civic infrastructure to people who would just as soon go squat behind a bush.
More symbolism over substance.
Now I guess we will get an “expert” from India on the line the next time we have a problem with our toilets … great.
Those cruel people are going to put hard working folks out of a job.
We need help here in the U.S. too. New flushing standards mean it often takes two or three flushes where one was perfectly adequate in the old days.
Don’t drink the water.
There’s something about this meeting that doesn’t smell right.
I’m fortunate in that I have one of them there new fangled toilets. Press once for the general “pee” flush, hold for a few seconds longer for a more in-depth and longer flush (second flush) … for … well, you get the picture. Bought the house second hand and took several months to discover this neat feature. ;-)
Probably they dump the contents of what they carry on their heads into the peanut fields. So don’t drink the water and don’t eat the peanut butter either.
They use squat toilets. I suppose people don’t waste a lot of time in the bathroom when you’re in that position.
I just recently bought a new toilet as the tank on my old one cracked. I did some research beforehand about different models (on the internet) and how well they got rid of stuff. Found a GREAT toilet I was looking for at Home Depot - and on sale, no less. The thing is extremely well-designed.
I didn’t get the one you did with the liquid/solid waste different flushes but I have to say this 1.6gal boy flushes better than the old 5 gallon one did. They’ve made the size of the flapper tube about 2-3 times bigger than the old one, and there is so much force to push the bowl contents out, it’s just engineered so much better.
So many sarcastic replies, so little bandwidth . . . . . .
(sigh)
Toilet evolution in progress, Darwin would be proud. ;-)
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