Flying toilet

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Flying toilets after they have been used (filled) and thrown away in the Kibera slum area in Nairobi, Kenya

A flying toilet is a facetious name for the use of plastic bags for open defecation, which are then thrown into ditches, on the roadside, or simply as far away as possible.

Usage

Flying toilet and other waste in a slum in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti.

Flying toilets are particularly associated with slums surrounding Nairobi, Kenya, especially Kibera. According to a report from the United Nations Development Programme launched in Cape Town on 9 November 2006, "two in three people [in Kibera] identify the flying toilet as the primary mode of excreta disposal available to them." This contradicts a Kenyan government report which indicates that 99% of Nairobi residents have access to a sanitation service.[1] The UNDP report blames a taboo against bureaucrats and politicians discussing toilets,[2] while others see a reluctance among the Nairobi authorities to formalise what they characterise as an "illegal settlement."[3]

A related concept is the "trucker bomb", described in a media report as the trucking industry practice of urinating into plastic bottles and throwing them from the vehicle as an alternative to stopping the truck or using facilities at rest stops.[4]

Problems

Piles of polyethene bags gather on roofs and attract flies. Some of them burst open upon impact and/or clog drainage systems. If they land on fractured water pipes, a drop in water pressure can cause the contents to be sucked into the water system.[5] People can also be hit by the bags as they are blindly tossed.[6] In the rainy season, drainage contaminated with excrement can enter residences; some children even swim in it.[7] Such close contact leads to fears of diseases such as diarrhoea, skin disorders, typhoid fever and malaria.

The practice of defecating outside, away from one's house, especially in the dark, causes concern for one's personal safety as well, especially among girls and women.[8]

In 2009 Rift Valley Railways cited flying toilets thrown at the railway track in Kibera as the cause of a cargo train derailment in which two people were killed.[9]

Improvements

Examples in Kenya

Several non-profit organisations have launched a "Stop Flying Toilets" campaign, using a winged logo and sponsoring races with famous Kenyan marathon runners.[10] The construction of three sanitation blocks containing modern toilets in Kiambiu, a Nairobi slum with 40,000 to 50,000 residents, has reduced the use of flying toilets, and thereby reduced clogging in the drainage system and outbreaks of cholera and diarrhoea. The modern toilets, constructed by the NGO Maji na Ufanisi, a non-governmental organisation based in Nairobi, require a fee to use, but have been quite popular. Similar blocks are being planned for Kibera.

Biodegradable plastic bags containing sanitizing agent

A more advanced and safer mobile sanitation solution, which has a similar simplicity to flying toilets and also uses plastic bags, has been developed by the Swedish company Peepoople: their toilet bag is called the "Peepoo bag", and is a "personal, single-use, self-sanitizing, fully biodegradable toilet".[11] This bag is now being used in humanitarian responses, schools and urban slums in developing countries, such as Kenya.[12][13]

Notes

  1. ↑ iafrica.com article
  2. ↑ "The taboo that kills 2 million kids a year". Foreign Policy, 10 November 2006
  3. ↑ Betty Tett, assistant minister for housing, quoted in IPS article
  4. ↑ Llanos, Miguel (2 June 2005). Urine trouble, some states warn truckers. msnbc.com. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  5. ↑ "Clean water is a right", The Economist, 9 November 2006
  6. ↑ Silas Okoth, chairman of the Kiambiu Usafi (Cleanliness in Kiambiu) Group, quoted in IPS article
  7. ↑ Teresia Kamene, resident of Matopeni, quoted in IPS article
  8. ↑ Vincent Njuguna, project officer at the Network for Water and Sanitation (NETWAS) based in Nairobi, quoted in IPS article
  9. ↑ Daily Nation, 22 December 2009: ‘Flying toilets’ to blame for crash
  10. ↑ Maharaj, David. "Squalor everywhere, but still this is a neighborhood" Los Angeles Times. 16 July 2004.
  11. ↑ Wheaton, A. (2009). "Results of a medium-scale trial of single-use, self-sanitising toilet bags in poor urban settlements in Bangladesh". Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GTZ), Dhaka, Bangladesh
  12. ↑ Owako, E. (2012). Nyando peepoo trial project report. Kenya Red Cross, Kenya
  13. ↑ Naeem, K., Berndtsson, M. (2011). Peepoo Try Pakistan - Sindh Floods, November 2011. UN-HABITAT, Pakistan

External links

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