August 16, 2017

The shame of a world with more mobile phones than toilets

located:	Kenya
editor:	Bob Koigi

Nothing quite captures the paradox of our time than the yawning gap between advances in technology and provision of basic services for human survival especially in the developing world.

It is best exemplified in the meteoric rise in mobile phones and internet penetration even as more people struggle with basic facilities like clean toilets and water.

In fact according to the United Nations and World Bank, more people have access to mobile phones than toilets. Putting it into context, Six billion out of the world’s seven billion people have mobile phones, but only about 4.5 billion have toilets, laying credence to the fact that rapid global technological advancement has not really translated into higher living standards for many.

In Sub Saharan Africa this rings true and has been described as a ticking time bomb. While the region has in the recent past enjoyed phenomenal uptake of technology and a rising tech savvy generation driving the innovation agenda, the age old social problems like sanitation still stick out like a sore thumb; in fact with increased urbanization they are poised to get worse.

The attendant effect has been a health crisis that on average costs the world $260 billion US Dollars every year. But even more painful are the horrid stories of women and girls especially in informal settlements who have to walk up to 500 metres to access a toilet. In Kenya’s Kibera slum, one of the largest world over, women have narrated painful stories of being raped as they left toilets heading back to their houses. In these shanties, as is the practice with many others, about 10 houses can share a toilet, which in many instances is a staggered distance.

Yet ensuring easier access to decent and clean toilets shouldn’t cost the world a fortune. Researchers for example have come up with some of the most iconic toilets while responding to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s clarion call to build the toilet of tomorrow — one that is safe, hygienic, uses little water and is easy to install.

The pay per go toilets operated in Kenyan slums have added to the list of groundbreaking innovations. The toilets are run by slum dwellers who maintain the highest degree of hygiene which also allow them to earn a living. It is a model now being replicated in other cities in the developing world.

Such initiatives should inspire more modern and cost effective ways of addressing global sanitation crisis while ensuring that industrialization is in tandem with provision of services vital for a generation to live decently and flourish.

Photo: Sanergy