C O V E R  S T O R Y

I N - S A N I T A T I O N

"We do not mind dirtying the well, or the tank, or the river by whose side or in which we perform ablution" MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI

India’s toilet culture
We were much ahead of others at the outset. Remains of the world’s first urban sanitation systems can be found in the ruins of the Indus Valley civilisation. In fact, the sewerage and drainage networks developed here, and used in cities throughout the Indus Empire, were far more advanced than any found in the other urban societies in the Middle East that flourished around the same time.
 

WASHING DIRTY LINEN AND... water bodies absorb all forms of human waste

For example, in the city of Lothal (a few kilometres away from Ahmedabad), people had toilets in each house, which were connected to covered drains that lined the streets. According to experts, this was one of the ‘finest forms of sanitary engineering’.

But our glorious era of toilets ended with the decline of Harappa and Mohenjodaro. From then on, the toilets in India remained primitive and open defecation became rampant.

The period between 500 AD to 1500 AD was the darkest age from the point of view of human hygiene. Not only in India, but across the world. Rich man’s housing and forts in India had toilets jutting out on the top, where sewage fell right into the open ground or the river below. The forts of Jaiselmer in India and big houses on the banks of rivers beartestimony to this fact. While the rich used luxurious toilet chairs or stools, the poor defecated on the roads, in the jungle or straight into the river.

Latrine legacy
Unfortunately, this habit of defecating anywhere and everywhere seems to have been an enduring one. “I have seen thousands of men and women dirtying the banks of the Ganga at Hardwar” wrote Gandhi, in 1929. That was 76 years ago.

Sanitation remains one of most neglected sectors in India, even today. Result? Human sewage poses the biggest threat to our rivers, lakes, ponds, and the groundwater table. Did you know that 80 per cent of pollution in Indian rivers is due to excreta? Every river which passes through a city or a town today becomes a stinking sewer. Domestic sewage also pollutes groundwater, irreversibly. That is not all. Badly maintained sewage lines contaminate piped drinking water supply systems.

The impact of this on public health is catastrophic. Poor quality drinking water and sanitation is the second largest killer in India—malnutrition being the first.

When sewage is directly dumped into a water body, it destroys the aquatic ecosystem. How? The microorgansms present in the faeces and urine, rapidly use up the oxygen in the water, leaving little or nothing left for the fish, plants, and other creatures underwater to survive on.

So to sum up—we Indians are in the process of committing hydrocide (killing rivers and waterbodies) and are slowly but surely ruining our own health. Simply because we don’t know how to manage our excreta!!!!

Found guilty: the haves
Who is responsible for this terrible mess that we seem to have landed ourselves in? Oh, it is easy to find scapegoats here. Just point your finger at the poor—both in cities and villages—who are forced to defecate in the open because they have no access to toilets. After almost 60 years of Independence, less than 48 per cent of urban Indians and just about 3.15 per cent of the rural population have access to toilets.

But hang on….they may be large in number, but they are not the guilty party. At least not the primary ones. The real culprits are the minority. The middle class and the affluent (most of us actually!!!) who enjoy the privilege of modern flush toilets. Confused, huh? Let me explain.