mobile toilets india
by Admin on Jun 7th, 2010
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Far more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet, according to a UN study on sanitation.
India's mobile subscribers totalled 563.73 million at the last count, enough to serve nearly half of the country's 1.2 billion population.
But just 366 million people - around a third of the population - had access to proper sanitation in 2008, said the study published by the United Nations University, a UN think-tank.
"It is a tragic irony to think in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones," so many people "cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," said Zafar Adeel, the UN University director.
Pingback by Tweets that mention David Report blog » Mobile toilet innovation by Ecoloove -- Topsy.com
Monday 10 May 2010, 10:32
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by David Carlson. David Carlson said: Mobile toilet innovation by Ecoloove: http://bit.ly/b1ktfe [...]
Comment by stanleygrace
Monday 10 May 2010, 12:40
soil design
In India, scavenging belonged to a specific community.
The people of this community earned their means by
handling, collecting and disposing the human excreta.
They belonged to a specific caste system. They were
discriminated. It took a long time for us as a country
to getpast it moderately.
Now to soil the story, we have an ngo which operates
mobile toilets. There’s an operator who has to pedal the
toilet and collect a load of shit and convert them to
manure and so on. I know for sure, these kind of
opportunity will be taken only by people of that
specific community. In all human dignity, we don’t
want a human to handle another human’shit.
In the state of Tamil Nadu, even the pull carts
were considered ill human and the Govt gave them
cycle rickshaws.
Design a nice toilet, affordable, innovate maintanence
techniques. work on behavioural change of people.
i guess thats what designers have to do. not soil
design.
Comment by stanleygrace
Monday 10 May 2010, 12:41
please google sulabh toilets and meet the real toil-o-preneur
Comment by Archana Devdas
Monday 10 May 2010, 12:51
This project was probably initiated with good intentions.
However,
I neither see climbin up some stairs to poop in a bucket nor cycling around to pick up someone’s left overs an inspiring experience or a progressive model for money making.
Good design inspires and impacts.
What design are we talking here? This is far from a human approach to improving health and creating opportunities for women in rural India.
Comment by online logo design
Tuesday 11 May 2010, 09:29
LOL Nice and creative tricks to make money from this toilet .
Nice post i like .
Comment by Elina
Saturday 15 May 2010, 23:10
Ecosan toilets (as used in Ecoloove) has been used all over world long before water closet toilets came into the picture. Human excreta has been used in farming as fertilizer by our forefathers not just in India but worldwide.
Many short time thinking people like “stanleygrace” thinks that just because one cast in India was forced to empty bad constructed latrines under horrifying working conditions everybody in whole world should use water toilets forever. That is wrong, of course. There’s a lot of things to do to avoid taking care of toilets becoming a “dirty” business. Ecosan is an example of making toilets a clean business.
After 4-5 months of storage the feces (of course sorted from urine to avoid smell and distract flies) looks and feels just like soil. Google ecosan to get the whole picture. Ecosan toilets is the future.
Comment by MeeK
Sunday 16 May 2010, 09:39
@Archana Devdas would you consider cycling around to pick up some stinky household waste an inspiring experience or progressive model? - yet, as you might know, people do it for the bit of money they`re getting with that. the guys running around with the toilet will not even be picking up, but going places so people can use it - which is 1. by far more hygienic than shitting in the open and 2. makes them some money by selling the feces or running a little shop for sanitary needs attached to this. so, 1. it does improve the health situation if you just consider the kidney diseases from holding in all day or the pollution of stuff that you touch, eat or drink and 2. women in / from these areas running the toilets would have a job / make some money (even if it is little).
since it would therewith come from within the community and not some white people running around telling everybody how to make things better, how could this be more human?
though, yes, it might not yet be the clearest model and lots of improvements would certainly come over time, but thats how you start and going forward incorporate constructive feedback. I`m sure Ecoloove will do so too.