I give a shit! Do you?

The WTD is a day to raise awareness of how much there still is to do to ensure that billions of people around the globe have access to good sanitation. 

However, World Toilet Day is also a day to celebrate the good work that is being done and what has been achieved already. One way to contribute with the World Toilet Day is to share your experiences from the last year.

So the question is: Since the last World Toilet Day in 2011, what experience, activity or event that you were part of, etc that signals that progress is happening stands out for you?

If you have something to share, please send up to 250 words to P.Bongartz@ids.ac.uk and, if possible, a photo (separately in a jpg file) to go along with what you have written about. 

The responses will be compiled and posted them on the website on World Toilet Day.

Deadline: Tuesday, 13th November

Check out the World Toilet Day Website

Do you Give A Shit?

New Global World Toilet Day campaign is launched – Do you Give A Shit?

Do you Give A Shit? This is the tagline of the new global World Toilet Day campaign put together by the Water, Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the World Toilet Organization (WTO). It’s slightly controversial. Very straight talking and means serious business.
Observed annually on 19 November, World Toilet Day is one of international of action that aims to break the taboo around the toilets – a topic no one likes to talk about - and draw attention to the existing global sanitation challenge. 
World Toilet Day was created to raise global awareness of the daily for proper dignified sanitation that a staggering 2.5 billion people continue to face.
Originally promoted by the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector (WASH) sector who understood far earlier the benefits of proper sanitation, good hygiene and clean drinking water has on the health and well being, educational attainment, wealth not to mention just basic human dignity. Increasingly it is gaining recognition by the international development community as a key issue, but there is still a long way to go.
Designed as an online campaign, World Toilet Day wants to cast its net far and wide to get the attention of not just those working on these issues already, but also decision makers and the public. Through its recently launched website (hyperlink website) it gives those interested in advocating for safer toilets– the perfect opportunity to do so. Through the website you can:
- Share the key campaign messages
- Advocate for better sanitation by hosting an event and register your activities on the interactive World Toilet Day map
- Promote World Toilet Day by using the logo, posters, banners, stickers and brochure
- Tell the world why You Give A Shit!
- Help the word on Facebook and Twitter.
If you Give A Shit, then World Toilet Day invites you to join in, take action and spread the word.

30 year plan for Queensland’s water sector

My letter to the Minister for Energy and Water......

The Honourable Mark McArdle

Minister for Energy and Water

cc: The Premier, Mark Pascoe (CEO - International Water Centre), Robert Cavallucci (Member for Brisbane Central)

Dear Mr McArdle,

At the AWA Water Association Awards and Gala dinner recently, you announced that the Qld Government will “Release a discussion paper for a 30 year plan for Queensland’s water sector".

Over dinner, this led to a discussion about: "what are the issues that the Qld Government should discuss?" 

We (as a society) have to get better at dealing with an integrated water cycle with a comprehensive (holistic) approach to managing water supplies, irrigation, sewage treatment and managing stormwater.

Our current institutional arrangements do not lend themselves to an integrated approach.

Our centralised water distribution and sewerage networks are very vulnerable to extreme weather events and heavily reliant on energy intense treatment and transport.

In framing a 30 year plan for the Water Sector, I would like to see the Qld Government and the Water industry respond to the causes and impacts of climate change.

The causes of climate change, obviously include generation of greenhouse gas emissions (directly and indirectly).

The impacts include a greater intensity and variability of rainfall events. 

 I am interested in seeing more mileage for Sustainable sewage transport and treatment as part of the 30 year plan.

Sustainable sewage (also known as Productive Sanitation) might include source segregation of urine, faeces and trade waste with more emphasis on resource recovery and reuse.

I am looking forward to the release the discussion paper for a 30 year plan for Queensland’s water sector and participating in the discussion.

regards,

Rowan Barber

Toilet 2.0 - the next Generation

In recent years we have seen a transition from analogue radio and television to digital services.

Smarter telephone technologies including video and net based applications are complementing the traditional voice down a copper wire.

Automotive companies are starting to roll out electric vehicles to replace internal combustion engine technologies.

These processes are transitional.

Prototypes were developed.  They begin as pilot projects, to prove the concept.

This is exactly what is proposed for developing Toilet 2.0 technologies.



The rationale for source segregation is to encourage nutrient recovery and reduce to costs and environmental impacts of the tradition method of aggregating urine and feaces with vast quantities of flush water, grey water and trade waste.

We need to identify pilot projects, to demonstrate the concepts of source separation of urine and feaces.

We need to develop the supporting processes, the institutional arrangements and encourage the social acceptance of the paradigm shift.

We need to develop trade waste policies and charges that incentivate and support source segregation.

Using traditional toilet technologies, there is a peak load of nitrogen, phosphorus that coincides with a hydraulic peak load, every morning and evening.

We need business models and a business case that demonstrates the value of source segregation.  There is a potential for delaying large capital investment for infrastructure upgrades by reducing the peak loads.  There are opportunities to reduce or avoid the operational costs at sewage treatment plants by reducing the need for energy intensive, biological and chemical processes for removing nitrogen and phosphorus.

The Toilet2.0 technologies provide an opportunity to lower the costs of delivery of sewage treatment services and increase the opportunities for resources recovery, energy efficiency, water efficiency and better environmental outcomes.

If Toilet2.0 technologies can be developed and demonstrated in my community, there is a huge market potential to meet the needs of 2.6 billion people who lack access to any form of toilet.

service

As someone who has worked in Customer Service, sometimes it is good to be able to recognise it, when others provide great service and to be gracious in allowing someone else to have the pleasure to serve.

Last night, I celebrated the day of my birth, by dining at Esquire with my beloved wife.  The menu at  Esquire is extraordinary.  We had a degustation menu.


I am convinced that one finds happiness by losing oneself in the service of others.


On this occasion, it was a bloke called Chris, serving my wife and I.  Chris must be very happy.

As someone who does not enjoy cooking, as I rule, I find eating is a chore.   I cannot do justice to try to describe the culinary wonder that were served to us.There was all sorts of gels, foams and sorbets.  There was shredded mud crab with macadamia and coffee crumbs.  We crunched on crispy slivers of crackling (made from the double chin of a fattened pig).  There were crunchy wafers of saltmarsh stuffed cows.  Wavers of honey dipped pumpkin with chocolate.


My beloved wife and I both figuratively and literally sucked the marrow out of life (and the thigh bone of a cow).


Fortunately, Chris was able to talk us through each course, telling us what we were about to eat and equipping us with appropriate utensils.  Chris spoke with passion and clearly enjoyed working at  Esquire.

Across the room sat a renown Sunday Age restaurant reviewer: Dani Valant out on the town with local foodies: Mel Kettle & Fleur Cole.


Dani was in Brisbane running thermomix: "in the mix" cooking classes.  My beloved is a Thermomix consultant in her spare time and had attended Dani's course, earlier in the day.


There were others around us taking photos of their food to post on blogs and their twitter feed.  I refrained from doing similar.  I was to engaged, watching my beloved enjoying and discussing the food, our future and our aspirations.  As parents of infants, we don't get out much.


Recently, the someone at work, gave some examples of good customer service that he experienced at the service department of Llewellyn Motors Toyota.


This led to a discussion of the levels of service.


I work for a water/sewage treatment utility.  My customers have come to expect that my company will deliver them a high quality product, available on demand & remove their poo, their wee, the water from showers, sinks, washing machines.


My 1.3 million customers use the water we supply them.  The soil it and send it back to be treated (and disposed to rivers & the bay).  The pressure is on to reduce the cost of the services that my company provides.  The cost of raw water is fixed by the Qld State Government.  The prices we can charge our customers are capped at Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases.


Meanwhile, there are a billion potential customers (globally) who do not have access to drinking water.  There are 2.6 billion people who could be (or should be) in the market for a service provider to collect and treat their poo and wee.  There are young women who cannot complete their education beyond puberty, because their schools lack the facilities to allow them to change pads.


So the challenge faced by my company and those involved in my industry around the world - is how can we reduce the cost of the delivery of water and sewage treatment services, yet maintain (or provide) an acceptable level of service.  How do we reduce the environmental impacts of providing those services? 


Water treatment and transport is energy intensive.  Sewage transport and treatment is also energy intensive.  Disposal of the effluent and residues also present challenges (and opportunities).


I see a convergence between the needs of developed and developing communities to develop new ways to provide exceptional water and sewage treatment services.


We need to reinvent the toilet!


We also need to develop the institution arrangements, service delivery, the back of house (down stream processing) systems, networks, business models, markets, supply chains etc. to support a new generation of toilet technologies.....

  

Toilet 2.0

Today I had the pleasure of talking about the exciting potential for the next generation of Toilet technologies, to my colleagues at work.  I work for a water and sewage treatment utility.


Our current Toilets are connected to a grid in a way that is analogous to a landline telephone connected to copper wires, telephone exchanges and data centres.  The toilets in my community, are dependent on a reliable water supply, sewer pumping stations and sewage treatment plants.  The floods in Brisbane in January 2011 and the subsequent earthquake in Christchurch and the Tsunami in Japan, demonstrated the vulnerability of these systems.

My ambition (which is shared by many others) is to see the development of the next generation of toilet which are "off the grid".


The imperative is providing services for 2.6 billion people in developing communities, who lack a sustainable place to poo, wee and/or change sanitary pads.


In the developed world, the cost of living pressures, the cost of water, electricity and the cost of running sewer networks and sewage treatment treatment plants are all on the radar.


The regulating authorities in the Qld State Government have capped the price one can charge for water and sewage treatment.  The price of raw water is under review.  All indications are, that Water Authorities are going to be under significant political pressure to reduce the cost of delivery of services.


Climate change, peak oil, peak phosphorus are all driving the need for change, to reduce the energy intensity of water and sewage treatment services and recover energy, nutrients and/or water from the process.


There arises a need for a next generation of toilets.  Yet the toilet is really just a user interface.  We need a whole new "back end" to the process.  


The first distinction between 1.0 series toilets and the 2.0 series is the separation of one's Number Ones from one's Number twos.

Our Number One's a choc full of nutrients: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium....


One person's urine contains enough nutrients to grow enough cereal to feed one person.


In my community, our number twos are not nearly as interesting (or valuable).  We tend to eat too much processed food.  However, the poo from a Vegetarian could be highly valuable. The dry solids can be combusted, digested or under go pyrolysis to generate electricity, heat, light, gas or compost.


The process engineering aspects of Toilet 2.0 are really very straight forward.


The complexity lies in the social engineering.  Some of the greatest resistance to change comes from within the water/sewage treatment industry.  Today I had the opportunity to make a case for change.


I was hoping someone would say: "It cannot be done!".  I was hoping someone might say: " You're crazy!"


However, the questions and discussions were actually intelligent and provocative.  There maybe some who want to work on intermediate technologies.  Perhaps there is still a need for Toilet 1.1.   


My ambitions are still quite modest.  Toilet 2.0 is not a silver bullet.  Toilet 2.0 is the next generation of toilets.  It is time to get Toilet 2.0 out of the laboratories and into your lavatories.

Thank you Bob Carr

Senator Bob Carr
Australian Government
Canberra

Dear Bob,

Thank you for joining the global Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Partnership.

Australia does not have a great record for dealing with our own poo & wee. Most of it ends up directly or indirectly in our rivers & oceans.

I trust Australians can help build supply chains for the 2.6b people around the world (1b in our region) who lack a sustainable, designated place to poo.

By participating in the SWA, perhaps Australian can learn about nutrient recovery and reuse & emerging technologies like urine separating toilets.

regards,

Rowan Barber
Engineer without a border

water efficiency

One can be proud of the fact that we (as a society) made some wholesale behavioural changes and achieved a permanent reduction in water consumption (and wastewater generation).

The newly elected Qld Government is reviewing red tape and promising to reduce the cost of water for consumers.

Within the next 76 days the LNP Government proposes to appoint the Gasfields land and water Commissioner to better oversee the relationship between rural landholders and the CSG industry. At the same time, the Qld Government shall start processes to amalgamate bulk water entities as part of their Four point plan to reduce water prices.

The future of the Queensland Water Commission (QWC) is under a shadow. The regulation and legislation for home and business water efficiency may be revoked by the new Qld Government in an attempt to be seen to be cutting Red Tape. The QWC is an independent, statutory authority established by the previous Qld Government. The QWC is (or was) responsible for achieving safe, secure and sustainable water supplies in South East Queensland and other designated regions.

The draft Position Paper – The Case for Water Efficiency - has been developed by members of the Australian Water Association (AWA) Water Efficiency Specialist Network Committee to advocate for the continued role of water efficient policies and practices in Australia’s future urban water supply and demand management.

The Position Paper makes the argument that water efficiency is a necessary and effective way of maintaining a secure water supply into the future and should be a high priority in a suite of measures to achieve water security.

The case for water efficiency, will be presented and discussed at the AWA’s Ozwater'12 Water Efficiency workshop The Future Role of Water Efficiency in Australia: Developing and Promoting a Common Approach.

The LNP Government is making plans to write down or write off (so-called) non-performing water grid assets.

There does not appear to be any appetite in the LNP for commissioning the Western Corridor water purification scheme for the purpose it was designed and constructed.

world walks for water

MEDIA RELEASE:

WHAT?: Some friends & acquaintances have organised a Walk.

Now they must gather friends, high-profile supporters and politicians to join the walk........and they need your help.

WHEN?: The Brisbane Walks For Water is Friday the 23 March, 2012 at noon (12:00 gmt +10).

WHERE?: They shall rendezvous at Reddacliffe Place and march around the CBD

We are walking for water & sanitation.

WHY?: So why is the world walking for water and sanitation in March 2012?

Do you even know what the hell sanitation is?

Let's start with some statistics:

• One in eight people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water.
• One in three people don’t have access to a private clean toilet.

Women and children walk on average six kilometres every day to fetch water for their basic needs. They often walk to unprotected water sources, such as rivers or muddy dugouts, and the average weight of water they carry is 20kg. ( UNDP, Human Development Report, 2006)

2.6 billion people still live without a clean and safe toilet ( UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Report, 2010). Instead, they have only a roadside, bucket or plastic bag to use. This is humiliating and also often leads to water contamination and the spreading of diarrhoeal diseases such as dysentery and cholera.

Women and girls are especially affected by poor sanitation access. They risk being sexually assaulted when using latrines in remote locations or walking to fields to defecate.

4,000 children die every day from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and unsafe sanitation ( WHO, Safer Water, Better Health, 2008).

Diarrhoeal diseases are the biggest killer of young children in Africa, killing more than HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

This lack of access to clean water and sanitation impacts severely on health, education and income.

It’s time for change. We are not talking about a change of Government.

The World Walks for Water and Sanitation 2012 is a global event taking place around World Water Day, from 17-25 March 2012. Thousands of people across the world will walk together to demand an end to the water and sanitation crisis. The walks will build on the success of the World’s Longest Toilet Queue in 2010 and the World Walks for Water campaign in 2011. Last year, over 350,000 people in more than 75 different countries walked together to demand that politicians keep their promises and step up their efforts to protect the right to sanitation and water for all.

Because of these global actions, governments are beginning to take notice, promises have been made, and there has been progress both internationally and within countries. This has encouraged hundreds of organisations and thousands of people to come together again in 2012 and keep up the pressure!

In April 2012, world leaders will attend the second High-Level Meeting (HLM) of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership in Washington D.C. It is really important that your Development or Finance Minister attends this meeting. You can take the opportunity of your walk to invite them to attend and demand that real progress and firm actions are delivered upon.

ABOUT ROWAN BARBER: Rowan is a husband, father, Ecologist, Engineer Without a Border, State Manager Australian Sustainable Business Group (ASBG). He works with poo & wee

Rowan Barber

State Manager

Australian Sustainable Business Group

why are we walking for water (& sanitation)

Some friends & acquaintances are attempting to organise a Walk.

They are trying to plan a route to or from a place of political significance or media interest in Brisbane. The folks who enforce the Peaceful Assembly Act 1992 at Brisbane City Council are making this nigh impossible.

They are trying gather friends, high-profile supporters and politicians to join the walk........and they need your help.

The tentative date for the alleged Brisbane Walks For Water is Friday the 23 March, 2012 at noon (12:00 gmt +10).

They shall rendezvous at Reddacliffe Place and march around the CBD if they can get permission to do so.

They don't have public liability insurance. They have not filled out countless forms or got all the necessary approvals. They just want to organise a walk. How hard can it be?

It is a walk for water & sanitation.

Why is the world walking for water and sanitation in March 2012?

Do you even know what the hell sanitation is?

Let's start with some statistics:

• One in eight people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water.
• One in three people don’t have access to a private clean toilet.

Women and children walk on average six kilometres every day to fetch water for their basic needs. They often walk to unprotected water sources, such as rivers or muddy dugouts, and the average weight of water they carry is 20kg. ( UNDP, Human Development Report, 2006)

2.6 billion people still live without a clean and safe toilet ( UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Report, 2010). Instead, they have only a roadside, bucket or plastic bag to use. This is humiliating and also often leads to water contamination and the spreading of diarrhoeal diseases such as dysentery and cholera.

Women and girls are especially affected by poor sanitation access. They risk being sexually assaulted when using latrines in remote locations or walking to fields to defecate.

4,000 children die every day from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and unsafe sanitation ( WHO, Safer Water, Better Health, 2008).

Diarrhoeal diseases are the biggest killer of young children in Africa, killing

more than HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

This lack of access to clean water and sanitation impacts severely on health, education and income.

It’s time for change. We are not talking about a change of Government.

The World Walks for Water and Sanitation 2012 is a global event taking place around World Water Day, from 17-25 March 2012. Thousands of people across the world will walk together to demand an end to the water and sanitation crisis. The walks will build on the success of the World’s Longest Toilet Queue in 2010 and the World Walks for Water campaign in 2011. Last year, over 350,000 people in more than 75 different countries walked together to demand that politicians keep their promises and step up their efforts to protect the right to sanitation and water for all.

Because of these global actions, governments are beginning to take notice, promises have

been made, and there has been progress both internationally and within countries. This has

encouraged hundreds of organisations and thousands of people to come together again

in 2012 and keep up the pressure!

In April 2012, world leaders will attend the second High-Level Meeting (HLM) of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership in Washington D.C. It is really important that your Development or Finance Minister attends this meeting. You can take the opportunity of your walk to invite them to attend and demand that real progress and firm actions are delivered upon.

Will the ALP or the LNP get their shit together?

The institutional arrangements for the delivery of water & sewage treatment services are in a state of great flux.

It remains to be seen if either the Labor Party or the LNP (or any of the minor parties) can offer some rational solutions for restructuring the water sector in South East Queensland.

As a first world country, we have more complicated arrangements than most developing communities.....but we still can't get our shit together.

As a society, we flush and forget. The only reminder we get is the water utilities bills (which are now capped at CPI)...

We have fragmented service delivery & we are still dumping (treated) sewage effluent into Moreton Bay, while the infrastructure for water recycling (at Bundamba) is running on idle.

Here is a Statement from Energy and Water Utilities The Honourable Stephen Robertson

Will the LNP support water legislation?

Water Utilities Minister Stephen Robertson said the time had come for LNP Leader Campbell Newman to come clean on whether or not he expects Logan and Redlands ratepayers to share the cost of disestablishing Allconnex. Mr Robertson also called on Mr Newman to reveal how he plans to pay for his as yet un-costed four point water plan. The South-East Queensland Water (Distribution and Retail Restructuring) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill is scheduled to be debated in Parliament today. Mr Robertson said residents in Logan and Redlands deserved to know whether or not the LNP will support the Bill which will hold Gold Coast City Council accountable for these costs. "It was Gold Coast City Council which put its hand up last year to divorce from Allconnex and in doing so agreed to pay the compensation costs of disestablishment to Redland and Logan Councils," Mr Robertson said. "All three Councils support this Bill, the Bligh Government supports this Bill but where does the LNP stand? "For the past 11 months Mr Newman has failed to reveal any detail of his position when questioned by journalists and the Councils. "He's got a slogan 'to give Councils their water businesses back', but he won't say how he would do this and who is going to pay for it. "Time and time again Cagey Campbell has proven incapable of answering the tough policy questions. "No more slogans Mr Newman, Queenslanders deserve answers, particularly Logan and Redlands ratepayers on this issue." The Bligh Government introduced the legislation into Parliament in October last year in order to formalise the three councils' decision to disband Allconnex, and take back their water businesses. The Bill provides a fair and transparent process for ensuring that Logan and Redlands City Councils are not financially penalised as a result of the decision to withdraw from Allconnex.

imagine a world without toilets

Here is the scenario. It plays out like a dream sequence, not unlike the dream everyone has when one wakes up at school in one's pajamas.

Imagine oneself back at school. For some, this is a nightmare in itself....Humour me. Humour is going to be important....

One is back at school and nature calls.

Nature is pretty impatient.

Nature calling, is a euphemism for some thing we rarely discuss but let's speak plainly for a change.

One needs to do a poo. Perhaps one needs to do a wee as well. Approximately half of you also need to change a sanitary product .....and for the purposes of this dream sequence: there is no where to go.

Now, if one was the only person in the world (or the only person at one's school), this may not be such a problem.

However, what would happen in a crowded school (or a crowded planet of 7 billion people) if there was no toilets?

Where would one go?

Where would one hide?

One step outside the classroom and the smell of ammonia and/or hydrogen sulphide (rotten egg gas) wafts on the breeze.

A world without toilets, is a world full of poo and wee.

2.6 billion people do not have to imagine this world. 2.6 billion people live without access to a toilet.

These people without toilets might poo on the beaches. They might poo on the streets. They may sneak out a night to poo in the cover of darkness.

Pooing is a risky business.

Poo is a mixture of human specific pathogens, metabolic toxins in a matrix of indigestible fibre.

That stuff could kill.......or worse, maim.

Imagine slowly starving. Even if one has no lack of food: imagine everything one eats passing straight through one's body...unable to be digested.

A world without toilets, leads to suffering. People suffer. The natural environment suffers. The species that share our biome also suffer (except certain populations of bacteria and perhaps some species of flies......)

On World Toilet Day, please be grateful for your toilet. Please be grateful for your sewers, sewage treatment plants and all the people who clean, maintain and operate the systems that transport and treat one's poo and wee.

Celebrate one's toilet. Give thanks and praise to those who clean them. Think about the impacts of flush toilets. There are now many alternative technologies.

Imagine a world without toilets. Imagine a world where everyone had access to a toilet.

Talk about toilets. Break the taboos and talk about poo.

potty mouthed

Next Saturday - 19 November 2011 is World Toilet Day.

No, seriously.

I am not taking the piss.

In 2001, the World Toilet Organisation (also known as the WTO) declared 19th November World Toilet Day (WTD).

Today it is celebrated in over 19 countries with over 51 events being hosted by various water and sanitation advocates.

World Toilet Organization created WTD to raise global awareness of the struggle 2.6 billion face every day without access to proper, clean sanitation. WTD also brings to the forefront the health, emotional and psychological consequences the poor endure as a result of inadequate sanitation.

My Challenge to you on World Toilet Day is to have a think about where your poo and wee goes, if & when you flush it.....

If you are in Brisbane, on the 19 November 2011, come along and celebrate World Toilet Day at the Brisbane Arts Thearte.

Write to your local newspaper editor telling them about World Toilet Day

The Editor,

The Courier-Mail

Dear Sir/Madam,

It’s World Toilet Day (WTD) on 19 November! In Brisbane, I will be celebrating WTD at the Brisbane Arts theatre (BAT) at a production of the play - "How to be a Man". How will you celebrate WTD?

The BAT is teaming up with the South-East Queensland chapter of Engineers Without Borders, to raise awareness and funds of their work providing critical sanitation for some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities.

$2 from every ticket sold at How To Be A Man on 19 November will go to EWB, as well as proceeds of a large raffle and casual donations.

Most people don’t like to talk about toilets but the World Toilet Organization & Engineers Without Borders Australia love to talk about them and we’d like more people to spare a thought for the toilet on this year’s World Toilet Day.

Could you imagine not having a toilet? What if for one day only, no-one in our country had a toilet - it’s pretty unthinkable isn’t it? Yet for 2.6 billion people in the world having no toilet is a daily reality.

Children are literally dying for the toilet, in the developing world a child dies every 15 seconds from water-related diseases.

So , I invite you to consider how vital toilets are, spare a thought or campaign for 40% of the world’s population who have to live without the basic necessity of somewhere safe to go to the toilet.

World Toilet Organization helps to eradicate this sanitation crisis and I urge you to get in touch with them to make the world a better place for everyone.

Please visit www.worldtoiletday.com or www.worldtoilet.org or ewb.org.au to help make a difference.

How To Be A Man - World Toilet Day performance

Sat 19 November 2011 8pm

Tickets $31 adults; $25 concession; $20 members

Book online: www.artstheatre.com.au

Yours sincerely,

Rowan Barber

Green Poo, Wee & Water, Green Eggs & Ham

My colleauges and I have observed the following:

· Most water/sewage treatment utilities have their retail prices to their customers capped by State Government regulation to a maximum of CPI increases;

· Consumers in other industiries have demonstrated a willingness to pay a premium for "Green" products such as green power or voluntary carbon offsets;

· Water distribution & sewerage systems are effectively grid connected;

· Water Utilities could develop premium water & sewage treatment services and offer them to their customers;

· These services might allow customers to pay additional charges on their water and sewage treatment bills to fund environmental initiatives such as:

o urine separation (at source) and phosphorus recovery;

o digestion of biosolids to generate electricity;

o solar disinfection of drinking water;

o nutrient recovery from sewage effluent streams….

World Toilet Day

I wonder if you can have a bit of a think & a chat to your colleagues about how we might want to celebrate World Toilet Day in 2011.

The 19th November - is World Toilet Day: http://worldtoilet.org/wto/index.php/programmes/world-toilet-day/78-world-toilet-day-2011

http://www.wateraid.org/australia/about_us/newsroom/8015.asp

In 2008, when I was at the Department of Public Works, we teamed up with Caroma, the International Water Centre & Engineers Without Borders to run a 100 toilet Art Exhibition in the Queen Street Mall. We had Bob Mcmullan (the Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance) come along and open the exhibition. Councillor David Hinchliffe submitted an entry along with local artists & artisans, PR/Marketing & engineering firms.

In 2009, we held a sit in (squat in) at King George Square, highlighting the fact that 2.6 billion people have to squat out in the open or in the streets, because they do not have access to even the most basic toilets.

in 2010, we held "a where would you hide", Art Exhibition, with the Australian Toilet Organisation & WaterAid Australia, using lifesize cardboard puppets. Unfortunately, the puppets drowned in the basement of Brisbane Square in the January flood. We also acknowledged the work of the folks in Urban Cleansing at Brisbane City Council, who clean & maintain public toilets.

Earlier this year, I extorted some money & support from Natalie Bochenski (aka Girl Clumsy) - http://www.girlclumsy.com/2011/02/rowan-doesnt-want-to-help-or-does-he.html

The objective of World Toilet Day is to celebrate our toilets & the benefits that they bring and to raise awareness of the fact that a third of the world's citizens do not have access to a toilet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a summary of what a toilet means for a young girl (taken from: http://blockbuster.water.org/?p=466)

1) She can stay in school.
Girls in the developing world often drop out of school once they reach puberty because there are not separate sanitation facilities for boys and girls. When menstruating, there is nowhere private to tend to their needs or deal with soiled clothes. The resulting embarrassment and anxiety causes girls to give up on school.

2) She’ll have better health.
Lack of toilets or other sanitation facilities forces girls to wait until nighttime to defecate (under the cover of darkness) or to wake up very early in the morning. This not only causes extreme discomfort, but can also cause urinary tract infections and other gastro-intestinal problems.

Fecal matter is the leading cause of illness in the world. Most of these illnesses, such as diarrhea, are easily preventable with access to sanitation (toilets, or other means of waste disposal). Because no sanitation facilities are available, open defecation is a common practice in rural areas in the developing world – despite the fact that people are ashamed of being forced to use this practice and often know that it is associated with disease. While many adult women suffer chronic diarrhea and survive, hundreds of thousands of girls less than five years old die each year because of it.

3) She won’t have to worry about her safety.
With the setting sun comes the long-awaited opportunity for girls to relieve themselves – but fear is a companion to their relief. When a girl’s only option is relieve herself under the cover of darkness, in a remote field or other removed location, she is more open to attack by wild animals and poisonous insects, and more vulnerable to rape and physical and sexual assault.

4) She’ll have the dignity she deserves.
Imagine living life without sanitation: you have no privacy, no sense of security, poor health, and limited options for staying in school.

regards,

Rowan Barber - Sanitation Engineer

Urine separation toilets

One of the first principles of process engineering is segregation (or separation of waste streams). The effluent from one process can be the influent for another. In many developed societies, we aggregate our poo & our wee with vast quantities of water, transfer the slurry over vast distances, only to separate the components out again using energy intensive physical, chemical & biological processes.

Physiologically, are poo & our wee are separated. We need to design our user interfaces (toilets) with baffles or separate urinals to enable the collection of urine.

Urine can be a precursor or feedstock for many useful industrial chemicals including fertilizers, sodium hypochlorite (bleach).

Head to the Year Of Humanitarian Engineering Website & join the discussion.