FORUM Toilets for all By Bindeshwar Pathak Adequate supplies of safe water and sanitation are essential for a healthy and productive life. Water that is not safe for human consumption can spread disease. Inadequate sanitation causes pollution which adversely affects agricultural productivity. Industrial activity is hit due to illness-related absenteeism. Urban populations in developing countries are growing at very fast rates. Rapid urbanisation creates more demand for basic services like water, sanitation, drainage, refuse disposal, and housing which local authorities are unable to meet. The gap between demand and supply is continuously widening. A closely related issue of rapid and uncontrolled urban growth is the creation of slums. In many cities in developing countries more than half the population live in slums. The debilitating effects of unhealthy living conditions and deteriorating environments lower the productive potential of the very people who can least afford it . Among the poor, the women and children suffer the most. Globally, more than 2.4 billion people are without adequate basic sanitation facilities. In India, more than 733 million people out of population of 1,027 million, according to the 2001 Census, either defecate in the open or use insanitary buckets, dry privies or community facilities. Poor sanitation coverage in India is primarily due to insufficient motivation, a low level of awareness of the problems and a lack of affordable sanitation technology. Most of these people are from lower socio-economic groups and are not aware of the health and environmental benefits of sanitation. It is still not seen as a high priority, resulting in absence of people's participation. In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, agreed to halve, by the year 2015 the number of people without basic sanitation. The Sulabh Sanitation Movement has been actively involved in the development and implementation of sustainable technology in the field of sanitation since 1970. The twin pit flush toilet, popularly known in India as Sulabh toilet, is an important sanitation breakthrough. The technology is simple, affordable, appropriate and socially acceptable. It requires only two litres of water to flush excreta. The cost of a single toilet varies from the equivalent of US$ 10 to US$ 1,000 depending on the size of the unit. Sulabh has constructed more than 1.2 million such toilets in individual houses. The provision of public toilet complexes at public places and in slums on a pay and use basis is another important Sulabh landmark. Pavement dwellers, the floating population, rickshaw pullers and those who cannot afford their own household toilets, can all use well designed and managed pay & use community toilets with bath, urinal and laundry facilities. This system has proved a boon to the local authorities in their endeavour to keep cities, especially slums, clean. Sulabh has constructed so far over 5,500 such toilet complexes in different parts of the country, providing maintenance around the clock. Recycling and reuse of human waste for biogas is an important way to get rid of health hazards from human excreta. Sulabh is the pioneering Organization in the field of biogas generation from public toilet complexes. The Sulabh biogas plant does not require manual handling of human excreta and there is complete recycling and resource recovery from the waste. Biogas is utilised for cooking, lamps, electricity generation and body warming during winter. Sulabh has also developed a new and convenient technology by which the effluent from the biogas plant is turned into a colourless, odourless and pathogen free liquid manure. The technology is based on charcoal filtration and ultraviolet rays. Much of the demand for latrines comes from women as they suffer the most due to non-availability of these facilities. Women have by far the most influence in determining household hygiene practices. Although low-cost technology is easy to implement, it requires ingenuity and expertise for precision in construction and competence in supervision to guard against faulty construction and pollution of ground water. Training of personnel for operations and management is therefore essential. Sulabh employees make house-to-house contact to educate and motivate householders and disseminate information about the system. Because children are more receptive to new ideas, Sulabh visits schools to make children aware of the importance of sanitation and personal hygiene In order to inculcate a habit of using toilets at a young age, schools are provided with sanitation facilities. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak is the Founder of the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. "I live in Patil Estate slum. There were no taps in our slum. We used to go to the toilet near the riverside. The insects used to climb up our legs. We went todefacate under the bushes ... then they made open drains, but the children defacate in them ..." - SANGITA CHAVAN, a resident of a slum in Pune, India   "Without clean water you can get diseases." - Maureen Nyango, former Nairobi street child.   "If water were clean, children would not die from cholera." - John Mwaura, a former Nairobi street child mourning the death of a friend who died from cholera.