Category: awareness

toilet signs & gender segmentation

wo-menSpeaking about sanitation, most people probably just think of toilets and how to improve on that. And while we rather think about the involved process engineering (aka the technical side) associated with this daily business, the toilet, it’s availability and cleanliness is what is seen by the majority.

It is against this background that I would like to forward you to this interesting post on gender and toilets (also here because of the additional comments) as there’s still a complete world full of such unsolved gender issues.

Fortunately, or at least that’s what I think, any debate on toilets (~sanitation, ~hygiene, ~privacy, ~comfort, etc.) is good & a way forward into the right direction. So if it takes a gender issue like the rather unfortunate (or not?) seperation into women’s and men’s washrooms for people to return talking about toilets, then we’re one step closer to an improved sanitation. Do you agree?

World Water Day 2010

logoGoing by Social Media standards, World Water Day 2010 has been a full success. “World Water Day” is a trending topic on Twitter, thousands of people gathered online and offline to join the world’s largest toilet queue and various other NGOs as well as GOs are using Facebook & their blogs to highlight the importance of such an international day.

Social media, online stuff – where’s the real action you ask?

Well, here it is:

The World’s Longest Toilet Queue Flickr Stream.

Enjoy! 🙂

Global Handwashing Day

Today is Global Handwashing Day!

GHD Wallpaper1

“The guiding vision of Global Handwashing Day is a local and global culture of handwashing with soap. Although people around the world wash their hands with water, very few wash their hands with soap at the critical occasions.”

There even is a dedicated website for this cause with further information on why we actually need a Global Handwashing Day:

“Handwashing with soap is the most effective and inexpensive way to prevent diarrheal and acute respiratory infections, which take the lives of millions of children in developing countries every year. Together, they are responsible for the majority of all child deaths. Yet, despite its lifesaving potential, handwashing with soap is seldom practiced and difficult to promote. (…) A vast change in handwashing behavior is critical to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths among children under the age of five by two-thirds by 2015.”

Have you already washed your hands with soap today?

Ecosan Waterless Toilet System

Currently, the pursuit towards sanitation is one of the pressing issues around the world.

Have you ever come to a point where you are challenged with the recent issues on sanitation in the world? Have you ever asked yourself questions like: “How have I contributed to sanitation problems today?; How can I contribute in solving sanitation problems?; Am I an enemy of sanitation? ” Or perhaps you probably had ask more questions than me…

So much for that, I just want to share one video I found on the internet about Ecosan Waterless Toilets:

Ten steps to stop open defecation

WaterAid, an international charity organisation, recently launched a 3D animated film illustrating the disease burden that comes with open defecation, and what communities in Bangladesh are doing to address the issue:

The short film outlines the problems caused by open defecation and specifies ten steps that communities can take to achieve “open defecation free status”, leading to a reduction in disease.

[via]