TOILET WAR

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Today, politics is not a welcome word. In any social or religious discussion, one party warns the rival team to avoid bringing in politics. However, the peculiarity of the modern world is such that no aspect of human activities is untouched by politics. I am sure, you will be surprised to read that this so-called nasty word has intered into toilet as well.

Disturbed by the huge lack of clean toilets in mainly developing countries, several leading sanitarians felt concerned and decided to devise some remedial measures on international level. Led by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak of Sulabh and Jim Sack of Singapore, they founded the World Toilet Organisation (WTO) in 2001 in that island country. Since then the WTO has been organizing its annual summits in different countries to propagate the message of ‘toilet for all’. The WTO summit of 2007 was jointly hosted by the Sulabh and the Govt of India in New Delhi. A great concern was expressed over the 2.6 billion people in the world resorting to open defecation. Under the Millennium Development Goals of the UNDP, they decided to reduce this number by half by 2015.

While everything was going on quite smoothly, we suddenly heard in 2007 itself that a rival body, christened as the World Toilet Association (WTA) was constituted in Seoul, South Korea. With its headquarters in a specially toilet-shaped building, they charted out their separate agenda. When the invitation letters reached the delagates to attend the first WTA conference at Macao, the invitees were hesitant to respond positively as they were afraid of being bracketed with one particular body. Anyway, the meet was successfully completed. The delegates including those representing the UN decided to raise adequate funds to handle this gigantic task. It was said that an amount of $10 billion  would be required to reduce open defecation by half till 2015. This investment would net an estimated $84 billion in savings from improved public health. The world expects that without any unhealthy competition, they should work unitedly, as the objective happens to be the same.