we all would like clean bathrooms. cochin 2 Apr07

I am sure we all would like clean bathrooms.

As I used the toilet at the airport, i felt happy. The toilet was clean and dry, and odourless. A faint perfume hung in the air. There were but 2 other people using the large toilet complex. And then water started to flow.... at all the urinals in a steady cleaning flushing movement. I waited with bated breath, alarmed and thinking. Thought can cause alarm, fear, panic etc... Often one wishes one did not think...

The water was obviously clean, may even have been drinking quality. And a question sprang into my mind. Is this the best we could do? This is Kerala, the land of plenty of water. This is Kerala where water levels have dropped and drinking water is scarce nowadays. And this is the same Kerala where the water was going down rapidly, being converted from pure clean water to grey or black water in a jiffy! Is this the best?

Black water is that which carries pathogens and needs to be drastically treated before being used again. It cannot be let out without much treatment. The sewage water, the water flushed down toilets is black water. Grey water is the bath water, wash water from kitchen or clothes washing etc. It does not have the same level of pathogens; in fact it can easily be cleaned and reused for gardening, irrigation, even flushing. Urine is supposed to be a sterile fluid and not at all pathogenic. In fact it is best useable as fertilizer for plants. Now is it necessary to use pure water to flush down sterile urine, and possibly make it balck water by leading it to a septic tank? Is this the best we can do?

Once upon a time we thought water was an endless resource. ANd now we know that drinking water is a scare resource and a privilege to have. It is anticipated that the shortage of drinking water is going to drive human society into reexamining many of the assumptions. Then why do we continue with such practices? At hotels, in airports, in public buildings and even homes?

Yes we must have clean floors and no odours. The floors must not slip. But is this the best solution? If we can afford to buy the water is it alright to treat it with scant respect? For example, would it be right to buy a lorry loads of water and bathe using the bath tub twice a day? One can afford it. And one has earned the money honestly.

Or is it that as a society, we are waiting for things to become unbearable before changing? That is possible.
"It must be ok since we are all doing it!" seems a dangerous line of thinking. Air, water and use of public space would come under this ambit. It is almost like saying, "Why change when i dont have to. When I have to I will, just like you and everybody else." The consequence seems to be - So let us then continue, using water electricity and air and all public property the way we have been. Let us also grumble... Let us rest with intention and helplessness.

There must be another way to move ahead. There must be simple stands we can take. There must be simple wisdom that we can pool.

I was most happy to hear about the dry toilet system being propogated by Paul Calvert in Tamilnadu and Kerala. Right use of water seems eminently possible, and near at hand. Dont miss..
http://www.eco-solutions.org/urbanecosan.html