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Much has been said about the “dignity” of people who have long drops, or use the bucket system, in this country. But where is the “dignity” of having your children eating in the toilet?
Recently, someone who goes by the name Shi12, has uploaded some photos of the “Lovely Loo,” which were published here on the Multimedia News24 community. This was followed by an article (an advert, really) called: “Cape entrepreneur aims to help end “bucket system” with low-cost, green loo.”
The photos are both heart rending and tragic. They show poor, pre-school children, eating and drinking cooldrinks inside a Lovely Loo – a toilet made from plywood. The toilet is obviously brand new, and much cleaner than the surrounding corrugated iron and plank shack, where it was installed.
As for the article, it is not only misleading, but decidedly disingenuous.
The author (Shi12) states: “The Lovely Loo addresses the current need for a low-maintenance, odourless sanitation system. What’s more, it is low-cost, self-contained and waterless. It doesn’t require flushing and even turns waste into a useful by-product – compost.”
And she goes on to say: “The Lovely Loo, a self-contained, waterless, private, self-composting toilet.”
In fact, there is NO SUCH THING as a self-contained, self-composting toilet.
These composting toilets call for the use of cover materials. Cover materials are just that, they are the materials you have to use to cover the waste once you have used the toilet. Which means after EVERY poo-poo you make.
A variety of materials can be used for cover materials, including sawdust, peat moss, cured compost, leaf mould, and/or rice husks. Where is this going to come from? The author conveniently fails to mention it.
In fact, this system is unhygienic, requires constant maintenance, is smelly, and if you have no use for the “compost,” you end up with a lot of the brown stuff that you have to dispose of somewhere in your neighbourhood.
Shi12 also fails to mention that you need a composting bin system to make the compost. Or that flies are attracted to the shit. Or that these plywood toilets quickly deteriorate.
To install the Lovely Loo at a crèche is just looking for trouble. And allowing the kids to eat and drink inside the toilet is unforgivable.
Where is the dignity in letting your children play in a toilet?
Sis, man!
