Portable Sanitation a substitute for toilets in India

Sanitation is the bare minimum a human can wish for. But not everyone on this planet is equally lucky. Worse is the condition in developing and under-developed countries. According to UN summit of 2005 at New York, “A child dies every 15 seconds by diarrhea, mainly caused by poor sanitation and water supply.” 42% of the world population has no safe place to go for toilet. This leads to use of open and unsafe places. According to UNICEF, a gram of human feces has 10 million viruses, 1 million bacteria and 12,000 parasites. Enough to make this planet a disease prone place!

There are two main reasons why the sanitation target is so off track. Most countries have no single institution which is responsible for sanitation and there is rarely a national budget dedicated to sanitation. Of 14 countries examined by Water Aid, only two were found to have a dedicated sanitation budget. Despite sanitation having helped reduce mortality in their own countries, aid donors too do not priorities sanitation for spending in today’s developing countries.

Developing countries have their unique problems. In countries like India bureaucracy and red tapism does not spare even sanitation Land, water supply, electricity and above all legal formalities make simple sanitation project year long projects. And if at all they are constructed, there is no one to maintain that. In a very short span of time they become unusable and that land is now good for no other use.
South East Asian countries are worse. In many villages, availability of toilet is considered to be a luxury!

The major pain areas for Asia in terms of sanitation are
a. unavailability of water
b. no proper drainage system
c. poor waste disposal management
d. conventional systems are costly and difficult to maintain

An economical, hygienic and safe answer to the problem is Portable Toilets. A portable toilet not only solves the problem of health and hygiene but also can provide employment to the uneducated poor masses. Every single portable toilet employs two people for maintenance. And yes, this all can be achieved without running behind bureaucrats for legal permissions, water supply permission and so on.

So, why this simple way of health and sanitation, which can also empower our poor uneducated masses with employment perceived as an underdog? How can the political, social and religious leaders talk of development and progress without hygiene and sanitation? It is the war of the poor which needs strong political and budgetary priority and not just sympathy.

Challenge for the poor in the Asian countries is health, sanitation and employment.
Choice was always with us and will remain with us.  
Let’s do it!