Night Soil

Today, I took a rickshaw for an hour drive outside of Delhi for one purpose only: to visit the 'Sulabh International Museum of Toilets.' I figure in a city thousands of years of history and thousands of men openly urinating on any and every street corner, field and mountain at any time of day, plus an omnipresent struggle to find an operational and sanitary toilet, plus a constant wonder about what the Indians do if they don't use toilet paper, I should finally take a plunge right in to 4,500 years of the history of the toilet. Why not? I've seen dozens of museums, mosques, bazaars and temples - it's time to get back to the basics.

Little did I know that this museum was a part of a NGO called Sulabh International Social Service Organisation that has the objective of providing safe, sanitary and environmentally responsible toilets to the poor, disabled and elderly throughout the world. They have built millions of latrines around India and consequently sussed out a way to turn human feces into bio-gas (usages include electricity and inclusion in manure provides a great source of manure after about 1.6 years "fermenting" in a closed container as long as the moisture is sucked back into the soil through holes in the container - feces is 95% water). With my own eyes, I saw a lamp illuminate with 40-watt voltage, a gas fire of stones start so that stones could later be used for warmth hours after the fire went out, a fan start, a generator turn on, and gas stove boiling tea water (not urinary water). All of this came from the center's six thousand public toilets - one rupee per person - and one person produces 1 cubic foot of gas per day. There are over one billion people in India! That's a lot of gas, folks. They also figured out a way to make doorways out of feces mixed with dirt - it doesn't smell and is solid. There are some sculptures on display. But, I was far more impressed with the technology of shit. Perhaps I'm behind the times, but wow - what an eye opener this museum was! We can recycle waste in so many ways!

It doesn't stop at feces, though. They also turn urine into non-potable water that can be used for irrigation, agriculture and further flushing of toilets where water is scarce. The water has nitrogen and phosphate, so is great for agriculture. There are two ways. One: they simply funnel urine into a sedimentation tank for 30 minutes, let it sit in a sand filter, then add some air to it then add some carbon and let it get some sunlight....voila! Clear, usable water. Who knew? Two: they add duckweed to large vats of standing urine ("dirty pond"), the duckweed multiplies quickly as it sucks up the volatile compounds from the urine water. The water is then transferred to a different, cleaner pond. They then extract portions of the fat and porous duckweed from the dirty pond and place it in little fish pond containers in the clean pond. The proteins inside the duckweed are so potent, that fish grow to twice their original size by feeding on the duckweed. So there you have it! Our pee with duckweed and two ponds plus a fish farm can make fish much bigger. A beautiful spiral of recycling again! Who knew?

Of course, the museum of toilets contained fascinating information and exhibits for every kind of person.

For the sybarites: There are 300 plus types of toilet paper that can be seen at a special toilet paper museum in Madison, WI. Japan created a toilet for only $100 that at the touch of a keypad button either, cleans the bowl, blows either air or water 'up' and can provide a massage and air freshner. The Americans on the other hand have created a $2,000 electric toilet that burns excrement within two minutes to a mere 1 teaspoon of ash. The problem is of course a very high electric bill. The French aristocrats, King Louis XIV and used to hold meetings at night with their court while on the crapper. Apparently, the king took his dinner and meetings all night long sitting on the loo and "frequently excreted" until the pot was full, at which time the chamber pot was passed under the noses of those in attendance until the person closest to the door could empty it as a reminder of the King's (or their lowly) rank. Ben Affleck allegedly bought J Lo a $105,000 jewel encrusted toilet adorned with rubies, sapphires, pearls and diamonds. "Jennifer is my princess and she deserves only the best even whe it comes to toilets," he said on April 18, 2003. And the winner? The USA!! NASA bought a $19 million space toilet from Russia that includes straps, vaccums and a filter to convert urine to drinking water.

For the destitute and elderly: India is a poor country. If a village can't afford a 10,000 rupee toilet made of brick outhouses and concrete containers, there are options going all the way down to 1,000 rupees made of whitewashed jute outhouses and wood or clay containers. For the elderly who don't like to break the habit of going in the great outdoors, an open air spiral outhouse can be built so they don't feel suffocated and uncomfortable.

For the spiritualist: Sai Baba has the largest collection of toilets in India. The excrement of his disciples provides electricity to 30,000 people. Toilet ettiquette was addressed in the Manusmriti Vishnupuram in 1500 BC India. For married people: cover the head with a cloth. If a cloth is not available, roll a sacred threat and put on right ear, bring over head to hang on left ear. Observe silence. Face north during the day. Face south during the night. Don't touch water why defecating. Use left hand for cleaning and right for the bowl. For unmarried or celibate people: observe the married's rules twice more intensely. If a sain, observe four times more intensely than the married. All of these rules apply to daytime. If evening, frequency of wash reduced by half. If travelling, rules further reduced by half. If sick, observe rules per capacity. The Manusmriti Vishnupuram also had some ecological precautions: urinate 10 hands (meaning forearm to fingers) from the source of water. Defecate 100 hands from the source of water. And urinate 40 hands from a river or temple.

For the sybarites, artists and romantics: the art of defecation, termed "night soil" was the subject of Swift and Voltaire's musings, plus many a comedy through history (especially the dumping of chamber pots on unwitting victims - mostly in romantic comedies.) There are side by side toilets adjoined for lovers who can't bear to part. Some toilets are very creative. They are painted beautiful colors, designed as flowers (a San Franciscan is currently doing this) and hidden in chairs under cushions. The French built a toilet appears to be a pile of books - all with English titles on the books - how very French of them to desecrate the Brits.

For the naturalists: In Chiang Main, the thai elephant facility frequented by tourists has installed elephant sized human toilets and trained the elephants to sit on the toilets and relieve themselves in order to avoid unnecessary droppings around the facility. There is a portable toilet used for tents and websites that has biodegradable bags as a toilet. There is a new model that has a 3.5 foot tower with a fan on top that is both solar and wind powered for the flush. The toilets that the center is providing to Indians has two containers (only one in use at a time, while the other is fermenting) ensures that excrement containers are 1 meter away from another container b/c bacteria can only travel that far through soil. In case of a fire, occupants of a western toilet are advised to jump into the toilet and flush. The toilets that the center is providing to Indians uses only 2 liters of water, as opposed to the usual 10-12 to flush. The US still uses 10-12 in most cases.

For the historians: India claims to be the first to have sanitary toilets (2500 BC) in Harapa during the Indus Civilization. This technology was flushed away with the loss of the Indus Civilization. The first flushing toilet was created in 200 BC. In BC 33, Plinius claimed that urine has medicinal values. John Harrington, NOT John Crapper, created the first WC, i.e. water closet wherein "necessaries" were flushed into a sewage system, in 1596 AD. In the 18th and 19th century, Austrian Bucketmen and women used to stand around public places with a long coat and a bucket. For a small fee, a member of the public could conceal him/herself under the coat and relieve him/her self in the bucket. Believe it or not, there have been many such instances when I would have gladly payed for a Bucketwoman in India!

For the skeptic: Here's why this is interesting. The act of excretion, as one of the most fundamental processes of all life, requires much more attention that it has been accorded until now in order that we may enjoy healthy and pleasant lives. Think about it: how many times have you walked into a public toilet and almost vomited at the lack of sanitation? At least you have toilets in the US. In India and Nepal and other developing countries, a toilet is very, very hard to come by. I vividly remember the outhouses in Africa: they were so old and moist from years of bush rain that the wood morphed out of shape and would congeal when the door was shut. There was no form of waste removal and it was rank! In order to open the door for an escape, one had to take a deep breath and not panic that the door wouldn't open, and instead figure out the angle in which to push a certain portion of the door for an opening.

So, a toilet culture is a very good thing to have. The Museum of Toilets, with the Kobe Int'l Toilet Counsel aims for: 1) world health and sanitation for elderly, disabled and poor; 2) private and public faciities that are safe and clean; and 3) a source of global environmental solutions for overuse of paper and contaminated land and water and consequent disease irradication. The Counsel believes that overcoming these many issues requires an exchange of information, experience, technology and inter-disciplinary research on an international level.

So, in line with my bretheren and sisteren (sounds like cistern, doesn't it?), I hope that this blog has effectively created and promoted toilet culture to all you readers out there! Go night soil!!!