Believe it or not, but Pakistan has a Toilet Problem

The United Nations recognizes 19^th November as International Toilet Day. International Toilet Day may strike as humorous to certain people, whereas others might choose to overlook its existence. Almost, 2.5 billion people on the planet are deprived of access to clean sanitation. This not only impacts their day to day lives but also exposes them to preventable diseases like cholera and typhoid.

Unfortunately, Pakistan is the 7^th worst country in terms of availability of basic sanitation facilities. Within the country, 42% of the total population is lacks access to basic sanitation, whereas 37% do not have a working wastewater disposal system in place. According to a report by United Nation’s children agency, 22 million Pakistanis relieve themselves in the open.

Pakistani women and children are the ones greatly affected by the lack of decent sanitation and proper working toilets. The condition worsens in rural areas, where only 48% of the people have access to proper toilets as compared to 72% in the urban regions. Where most of the rural areas being a conservative society, women are obligated to relieve themselves in the open at night. This creates additional problems such as susceptibility to infections of the bladder and kidneys, formation of kidney stones, constipation and exposes them to wild animal attacks. One in every three schools in Pakistan lacks a toilet which not only reduces children’s attendance but exposes them to various diseases. Non-existent wastewater treatment is another issue altogether, where it affects children the most,

Pakistan’s toilet issue stems from the lack of education regarding basic sanitary practices, reluctance to construct working latrines in village households and negligence of the government to introduce reforms.

Now that we have acknowledged the issue, what is the next step? According to the United Nations, International Toilet Day is about Sustainable Development goal and inspiring action against global sanitation crisis. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program is doing exactly that. In 2001, they launched their ‘Reinvent the Toilet Challenge’ which funded different institutions for the development of a sustainable and cost-effective solution to the sanitation crisis. The South Asian region was identified as one of the regions to focus on.

One of the institutions that was awarded the grant for ‘Reinvent the Toilet Challenge’ was Loughborough University, UK. They proposed a toilet design that was specifically designed keeping in mind the comfort and ease of use for communities residing in the South Asian Region. The waste generated from the toilet would be converted into char, which is a safe material and has applications as a fertilizer or fuel.

Finalized design of the multi-purpose toilet proposed by the School of Design, Loughborough University, UK. Image courtesy: https://hdl.handle.net/2134/15887.

Their toilet design had the following key features:

1. Suits the needs of different users, i.e. sitters, squatters, washers etc.
2. It can be easily used by females and aged individuals.
3. Has odour control and easy to clean/maintain.
4. Effective styling means it can be adopted by socioeconomic communities.
5. Vandalism proof.
6. Low cost and easily manufactured locally.
   
   
   

If this design is accepted by the masses and works in the field, we are looking at a successful toilet that will serve the rural and underprivileged communities of Pakistan.

Source Material

The Situation Analysis of Children in Pakistan, The state of child rights in Pakistan, Government of Pakistan and UNICEF Pakistan, September 2017.

Hurn, Karl (2019): Reinventing the toilet: academic research meets design practice in the pursuit of an effective sanitation solution for all. figshare. Conference contribution. https://hdl.handle.net/2134/15887.