Zofeen Ebrahim
SEOUL, Nov 22 2007 (IPS) – The rhythmic beat at the inaugural conference of the World Toilet Association seemed to roll away cultural taboos surrounding the act of defecation.
Drumming up support for the 'toilet revolution' Credit:
With a percussionist drumming on toilets, Thursday s opening ceremony witnessed some 1,300 participants from 60 countries, a large number of them officials, nodding acknowledgement that the issue of insufficient toilets can no longer be ignored.
The Nov. 21-25 event is seen as a coup for legislator Sim Jae-Duck, 68, the man who brought about the restroom revolution in South Korea. Not because he succeeded in getting internationally known leaders to this forum, but because he seems to have converted his own colleagues into accepting this as a high priority issue.
Evidence of that was available in the presence at the inaugural of Korea s top leadership, including Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, interior minister Park Myung-jae and the vice-speaker of the Korean National Assembly Lee Yong-hee. They pledged full support for the WTA and referred to toilets in terms of their being a cultural space , and a beautiful place to rest and meditate.
The toilet issue has remained somewhat muddied because it was always considered ungentlemanly and yucky to talk about it or even use the words describing the functions we perform every day, said Samuel Koo, the new chair of the WTA as well as Korea s ambassador for cultural cooperation.
Koo called for a new mindset and a sanitary reformation to abandon this great distaste people have of talking about issues surrounding toilets openly.
Related IPS Articles
When, around 4,000 young children die each day because they do not have access to these basic services, which we take for granted, something is terribly wrong, said Vanessa J. Tobin of United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF) who saw no reason to remain bashful. She made no bones about blaming these deaths to man s failure to dispose off excreta.
Tobin referred to statistics that show how lack of toilets could affect girls education and lead to an increase in their drop-out rate. But now with the formal launch of the WTA, the latter can play a key part in the U.N.-led crusade on sanitation, she added, referring to the U.N. s launch of the International Year of the Sanitation 2008 in New York on Wednesday.
The U.N. decided to specially declare the year to bring awareness towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing by half the proportion of people without basic sanitation by 2015. The international community has failed to deliver on this basic right. Today, more than two billion people around the world lack access to basic sanitation services, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
Darren Saywll, director of the International Water Association, warned that with two million tonnes of human waste going into world s water courses and a business as usual approach the world would miss the MDG target on sanitation. The supply-driven approach taken by governments and donors with heavy investments in large infrastructure projects he said were inappropriate responses to meeting the neglected goal, and called for low-cost facilities that addressed cultural sensitivities which would be far more sustainable.
Dr Shiggeru Omi of the World Health Organisation felt that the main challenge may simply be whether we have the will to make the necessary commitment.
Omi disagreed with the idea that fixing the problem would be expensive. It may seem like a formidable challenge to provide sanitation facilities to such large numbers. It is estimated that the cost of meeting the MDG target for sanitation is about 10 billion US dollars per year from now until 2015. This sum may seem a lot, but if we reflect we realise that this amount is less than one percent of world military spending in 2005; one-third of the estimated global spending on bottled water, or as much as Europeans spend on ice-creams each year.
According to Tobin improving sanitation is possible provided action was taken immediately. The technologies, approaches and skilled people are ready. Households, communities, local and national governments, civil society, and private companies all need to work together. Media and public opinion around the world can influence political leaders to act now. The estimated 10 billion dollars annual cost of achieving basic sanitation for all is modest and affordable, she said.
And this is what the WTA had been reiterating. We want governments to be equal partners, said Sim Jae-Duck, the newly-elected president of the WTA who says that if the political will is there the issue is resolvable. The association aims at providing sanitary toilets worldwide. Asked how it aimed to generate funds for such a huge task, the president acknowledged that while money was essential he hoped individual governments would be prepared to release a major chunk to the municipalities.
Koo explained that while the initial seed money would be provided by the Korean government, other governments would have to chip in as will. He hoped the U.N. agencies would help in this collaborative effort.
The Korean government, said interior minister Park Myung-jae, planned to conduct a survey of public toilets with immediate effect and follow it up with a rating system for public toilets with incentives given accordingly. We will share the experience with underdeveloped countries suffering from insufficient sanitary facilities and provide support.
Experts also stressed that sanitation solutions brought with them challenges like failing water resources, rapid urbanisation and population increases.
Approximately 1.7 billion people, one-third of the world #39s population, presently live in countries that are water-stressed This number is projected to increase to about five billion by 2025, depending on the rate of population growth. Projected climate change could further decrease streamflow and groundwater recharge in many of these water-stressed countries for example, in central Asia, southern Africa, and countries around the Mediterranean Sea -but may increase in some others, warned Tobin.
But that is exactly what we are emphasising at the WTA, said Koo. Our approach is two-pronged. While we are advocating more toilets, we also understand that there are regions where water is scarce, or where sewerage systems are non-existent. We would like to look at what others are doing and learn and develop technologies that best suit each country.
