Toilets aren’t a laughing matter on International Toilet Day
From Ancient Jokes to Modern Crises: Toilets Are No Laughing Matter
Humanity has always enjoyed a good giggle about all things bathroom and toilet related. One of the earliest jokes ever, recorded by the ancient Sumerians, was about a young woman passing gas…
The history of indoor, flushing, porcelain toilets as we know them today is an interesting journey through pipes and S-bends.
Since the earliest time, humans have differed from animals in one very specific way. While most animals avoid their excrement, they are not disgusted by it to the point of needing to get rid of it. Humans, on the other hand, have always felt a certain measure of disgust for the end products of our bodily functions.
Going back to the Sumerians, they created the first designated space for people to do their business. Ceramic tubes where set into the ground in a deep pit. You would climb down into the pit when nature called and utilise a tube. Once all the tubes where “used” the pit would be covered over with dirt and another one dug. The process would start over again.
It worked, for a while at least
Back then population density was not an issue and there were definitely not 8.2 Billion humans cramming for a space to relieve themselves, so this pit and pipe system seemed to work well for the ancients.
Without getting too deep into the dirty business of it all, let’s just say – when and how we go potty has always been front and centre in the planning of civilised communities, with everything from cess pits, indoor “commodes” and even just good old open sewers next to streets being trialled. Believe it or not, the first waste disposal system resembling what we have today was commissioned by Prince Edward in the 19th century…and designed by a man aptly named: Thomas Crapper.
From here innovations and improvements on Crapper’s design abounded and now, the large majority of modern spaces have high tech, professionally installed sewerage systems and comfortable, private and safe toilet facilities.
If this subject interest you, feel free to read more about the History of the Flushing Toilet.
Access to a toilet should be as normal as access to fresh air. (Shouldn’t it?)
It’s fun to laugh about all things toilet related and it is easy to giggle at a toilet joke. Toilets are funny…. If you have access to one. But, the reality is that many South Africans, and school children in particular, do not have the chance to laugh at a toilet joke, because they don’t even have the chance to access a working, safe and clean flushing toilet.
Let’s fix this
On the 19 of November, we will observe the UN “World day of the toilet”. This is a day aimed at raising awareness of the worldwide sanitation crisis, as well as addressing the injustice of “toilet inequality”.
In a local context, according to a study run at UCT, it is estimated that:
“By 2018, the share of children with adequate toilets had risen to 79% and it has remained at that level since. Around 4.3 million children still use unventilated pit latrines, buckets or other inadequate forms of sanitation, despite the state’s reiterated goals to provide adequate sanitation to all and to eradicate the bucket system. The majority of these children (3.4 million) use unventilated pit toilets, while 280,000 children have no sanitation facilities at all (open defecation or buckets). Children (21%) are slightly more likely than adults (17%) to live in households without adequate sanitation facilities.” Source: Children Count
This shocking state of affairs is why Homemakers feels so strongly about supporting the cause championed by World Day of the Toilet.
We should be ashamed. (And do something about it.)
Inadequate sanitation for our children should disgust us as much as our own “leavings” does, and as funny as a fart joke can be, a kid without a safe toilet, is no laughing matter!
Here are some wonderful organizations working at grass root levels to improve the plight of our kids and their bathroom-breaks.
Also read our article on four things you can do to live greener.
