Dirty little secret: the loo that saves lives in Liberia

Diarrhea is common all throughout the world; in countries like the United States, it isn’t a big deal. On the other hand, diarrhea can be deathly where countries have no access to clean water or a toilet. Diarrhea kills more children than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. The main cause of it is food and water contaminated with human waste. In Liberia, it is a huge problem. Interviewer, Rose George, goes to Liberia to interview the female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Liberia is trying to do some basic nation-building, but it’s not building toilets—something that could save millions of dollars and save many lives. In Liberia, the creek is everything. It carried dead bodies in times of war, and it still carries animal carcasses. It also carries the excrement of upstream villagers who use it as a toilet. Most importantly, it provides drinking and washing water. Although mothers are given hygiene lessons, they still provide this dirty water to their children.  WaterAid comes to Liberia to perform as process that puts hair dipped in shit into a glass of water then asked people to drink it. People refused, and WaterAid told them that it’s no different than the water that they are drinking from the creek. This is a very popular process that WaterAid does to inform people and it encourages people to build toilets. The interviewer asked the president why she won’t build toilets, but she seems to not care.

Building toilets is such an easy fix for diarrhea, but it’s frustrating to see that this is the last concern for the president of Liberia.  It seems to me that the people of Liberia do not see the link in sanitation and health. I think they need to be more informed of this, and that’s what WaterAid is trying to do. Many countries around the world do not have proper toilets, and relieving oneself in the bush is popular. This is very unhealthy because the excrement flows to the water stream. In the article, it states that people would rather see quick and immediate fixes such as building hospital clinics, but they do not know that building toilets can do a lot of good. Building toilets is linked to having good water because this prevents feces from spilling into the streams. Spreading the word about this and providing the funds to help will drastically change the health of most countries. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/feb/03/liberia-sanitation-johnson-sirleaf-toilets