Let's Cut The Crap and Finally Put An End To Open Defecation!

Open defecation – the official euphemism for pooping outside. 1.1 billion - (with a B) – folks world-wide practice it. When nature calls, they drop their drawers or raise their skirts and go in fields, behind bushes, in streams or other near-by water sources, even next to train-tracks and on crowded streets! Because they have no toilets. No shit! Let's not let the “eeww” factor keep us from facing the down and dirty truth here: men, women and children are pooping in public!! It's time to cut the crap and talk about how we can end this gross and dangerous tradition. I mean seriously....

Who does that, you ask? Well, 600 million people in India do and 39 million in Nigeria. In fact, according to a recent UN report 15% of the population, worldwide, steps outside to move their bowels. 82% of them live in just 10 countries: India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Niger, Nepal, China and Mozambique. Extreme poverty plays a major role, and demographics: it is far more common in rural areas.

To be sure, the numbers have dropped dramatically since 1990 - in countries where education and a toilet for every household were made priorities. Bangladesh, Vietnam and Peru have all managed to lower their statistics down to single digits! But some other places, not so much: India and Nigeria? Their numbers have actually risen.

It's not just about the annoyance or embarrassment of having odorous piles dotting the landscape. (Though those are two perfectly good reasons to not take a dump out in the open.) There are serious health, safety and environmental consequences connected to this bathroom habit.

Human excrement contains pathogens that can - without adequate sanitation methods - get on hand's and feet (especially of children) and into water supplies. These germs pose a serious threat to a community's well being, increasing the risks of contracting cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid. Most vulnerable are the very young, the very old, or the frail and infirm. More than 750,000 children under the age of five die every year from diarrhea directly caused by open defecation.

Having to go outside, especially at night, to engage in such an intimate act is unsafe – women and girls, in particular can find themselves victimized in horrific ways. Recently, media outlets around the globe reported on the shocking story of two young cousins in India, aged 14 and 15-years-old, who were gang-raped and then hanged after being accosted in a field were they had gone – after dark - to relieve themselves.

"This is a movement against open defecation. Cleanliness is
going to be our identity." 

The planet pays a price for this repugnant practice, too, with increased pollution both on land and in water. As faeces and fecal sludge contaminate an area it can have a domino effect where ecological processes are disrupted leading to destroyed ecosystems which in turn negatively impact the people dependent on them for sustenance and livelihoods... In short, it perpetuates a cycle of loss – not the least of which is the loss of human dignity.

More than toilets are needed though to stop this crap (see what I did there?:-)) Mind's and attitude's must be changed. The downside is so obvious to those of us who have had indoor plumbing for generations, but if this is how you've always gone, if this is how everyone around you has always gone...someone is gonna have to help you connect the dots, convince you why you should stop. Otherwise toilets become simply storage space.

Using education, humor, even shame, strides are being made. The UN had targeted 2015 in their International Decade for Action “Water for Life” campaign as the date for fully realizing sustainable sanitation world-wide and ending open defecation. The goal will not be met. But they are not giving up. On May 28^th. 2014 UNDeputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson announced a new campaign with the same goals but a different time line. The new target date:2025. To help get things rolling he is encouraging us all to learn...and talk about this issue. We must stop being coy about this practice just because we're embarrassed by the subject matter – lives are at stake. Word-of-mouth can bring about a whole lot of change. No shit.