Customer Reviews

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What if you learned that a particular problem was causing 80% of the illness in the world and was killing a child every fifteen seconds? Would you want to find out more, and insist that governments and the world do more, to improve the problem? What if you learned that one of the big reasons that governments and the world aren't doing more is that the problem is, well, yucky, and people don't like talking or thinking about it? There are blunter words for the problem, and Rose George uses them; the problem is feces. It is the topic of her book _The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste_ (Metropolitan Books), a sobering and eye-opening account of just how badly the world handles this one great and inevitable problem. Most of the people who read this book will be among the set that uses flush commodes which connect to sewers and treatment plants, considered the tops in fecal disposal. But 2.6 billion people lack not only toilets, but also lack latrines or outhouses or even a bucket. Toilets and sewage treatments have their problems, covered here, but with billions of people who literally have no place to go, feces wind up all over the place, easily getting into food and water and causing misery. George has been to sewers of huge cities, wandered excrement-coated slum streets, experimented with public toilets in rural china, and visited the workers who clean sewers or empty pits. There is humor here (not much of the toilet variety) and well-crafted explanation and description, but it is not overall a pretty picture. If you don't want to think about this problem, that's just the problem.

Toilets, if a culture has them, are only a starting point. In the typical sewage system, the flow is eventually separated into the cleaned liquid effluent which goes back into the water and the solid sludge (more trendily called bio-solids) which is a bit of a problem. It is pretty clean, and naturally would make a good fertilizer, and in the US it does get spread around all over. The problem is that anything goes down our toilets, like unused drugs or heavy metals. Those who worry about the application of such molecules onto our crops are not comforted by the Environmental Protection Agency which says such application is safe. A great deal of George's book is not about people with toilets and sewers. In India, the lowest of the class still held to be Untouchables get an income by collecting feces deposited on the open ground. There are flying toilets or helicopter toilets in Kenya and Tanzania. It's a nice way of describing a disgusting practice: defecate into a plastic bag, then fling the bag to a rooftop or into the alley. George cites the Chinese as being especially innovative and open about sanitation; feces have always gone onto the fields there, but more recently homes have been equipped with biogas digesters providing methane that heats homes and stoves. There are still urban problems, but the government knows how important appearances are. In preparation for the Olympics, holes in the ground were replaced with thousands of lavatories, complete with attendants. In South Africa, kids stay away from school because the toilets are so bad; an official school lavatory might be something rigged up from a car chassis.

The descriptions of the lack of waste disposal for so much of the world's population are often difficult reading. There are glimmers of hope such as toilet activists like the World Toilet Organization. An Indian activist, after a visit to Madame Tussaud's in London, realized that he could gather toilets from all over the world and make a Toilet Museum which fulfills his goal to "make toilets interesting." There are inventors in different parts of the world who have gadgets to make sanitation cheaper and easier, and the pattern is to avoid patenting them so that they remain anyone's to use or modify without charge. There are politicians (not nearly enough) who are willing to talk about the unmentionable problem. George's book, with vivid descriptions and bright commentary, does the same thing in its way, forcing attention onto a world problem that people foolishly regard as too icky to take seriously.

Although I have often read in the bathroom, I never thought to read such an interesting and, dare I say it, entertaining book about defecation and waste removal and treatment.

All humor aside (and I guess its taboo is why one feels compelled to try to be humorous about this subject), this is actually a very serious subject. The author tells us how the creation of sewage systems, and flush toilets, has probably led to a hugh improvement in life expectancy, since fecal related illness was, and remains in most of the world, the biggest killer (especially of little children, the elderly, and the immuno-compromised).

It is astounding to learn that most people don't even have outhouses, but must just squat where they can. The desease ramifications of this simple fact are enormous, and not humorous at all. Suddenly, the reader runs into some very sobering facts.

On a personal level, I don't think I'll ever put grease down the sink again, after reading about those (literally) walls of grease in the sewers. Her walk through a sewer amazed me and, for the first time, I realized that the people that do this work routinely are a bit heroic, putting life and limb at risk for our public health. I do recall that when I lived in Louisville, KY years ago, the sewers exploded when a factory emptied some chemical down the drain. This is very dangerous.

I recommend this book absolutely.

When I was young and living in very rural farm country and adventuring in the woods or hills and had to take a dump, I did what everyone else did: squatted, made some crap, wiped myself with a few leaves or a handful of grass, and moved on. (If the foregoing language disturbs you, then don't read this book; it's just as graphic, especially in the latter part.)

Now, imagine the teeming, close-living tens of millions in the slums and cities of developing countries--and even growing India--where, today, open defecation (that's the "polite" word, which is not that often used in the book) is the socially acceptable and often economically-necessary thing to do. Because it's cheap. There are no sewer systems, few toilets or even working public or private pit latrines. And where does this excreta go--be it India, Africa, China, Tibet, Mexico and even lesser sanitary places? Into the streets, ponds, rivers, oceans and even drinking water. Multi-tons of it everyday.

In some African countries, Tanzania and Kenya are two examples, the cheapest latrine is a plastic bag: "defecate, wrap, and throw. Anywhere will do, though roofs are a favorite" (pg. 210). Millions upon millions of people world wide have to make a choice when it comes to ridding themselves of excrement: "contaminating the environment or contaminating human settlement" (pg 222).

This book is shocking, but it has to be. Fortunately, in the beginning, the author spares us the worst part of the history (and history-in-the-making) of sanitation by discussing the glories of the sewer systems in Britain and the U.S. Then, she moves to other parts of the world. I began to think to myself, "Why would I want to tourist in certain countries when I could easily step in human feces--yes, it's everywhere (sidewalks, roads, inside public buildings, alleys, et cetera)--and also have no facility to relieve myself? At first, I thought the author must be exaggerating (it can't be THAT bad), but she produces all kinds of evidence: statistics, quotes and her own experiences.

Even in the good ole USA, pharmaceuticals can be found in drinking water: meds for heart disease, mental illness, epilepsy, et cetera. These trace amounts deform frogs and fish. The effect on humans? Not yet known.

The author makes a strong case for prioritizing the subject of removing and using human waste. But few want to talk about it or spend money on it. Hopefully, her book, and others, will enlighten people (politicians, especially).

As for the organization of this book, I'd give it 3 stars. But the subject matter is so important that this should be a best-seller, on every thinking person's reading list.

The book begins with some historic background on sewers, and how sewers and the flush toilet drastically improved public health. I would have enjoyed more of this. There's an overly-long section on high-tech Japanese toilets and why they haven't become popular elsewhere. I would have preferred less of this. I don't want a high-tech toilet, but would be interested in learning more about the composting toilets being used in some places in the Far East and Europe.

The real focus of this book, it seems to me, is the LACK of toilets and sewers in so much of the world. It's horrifying how many people still defecate outdoors, mostly because their governments have ignored sanitation, and the effects this has on public health. Billions of people have few options, little knowledge, and no money with which to change the situation.

Like other reviewers, I would have appreciated more details about different types of toilets, latrines and the like, how efficient they are (or aren't), etc.

The interviews with various activists, especially in India and China, who are working to improve things, are interesting. Despite their tireless efforts, it doesn't sound as if the battle for sanitation is being won. Huge slums everywhere are growing faster than the problems can be addressed.

Anyone who has read "Angela's Ashes," and remembers the descriptions of the neighborhood toilets the McCourts used in Ireland, will recognize this.

As for those of us in the Western world, it's appalling that so many of our cities still pollute the oceans with our sewage. In other words, this isn't a third world problem, it's a WHOLE WORLD problem. Equally appalling is that supposedly "clean" sewage by-products, heavily contaminated by chemicals, are being used as crop fertilizers in the U.S. and England. Sickening -- literally and figuratively!

What is the cheapest toilet in developing countries? It is a plastic bag. "Kenyans call them helicopter toilets. Tanzanians prefer flying toilets. Whatever the name, the technique is the same..." Go. Wrap. Throw.

The plastic bag is one step up from open defecation, which according to the author, is still widely practiced in India.

We live in what the author calls a `flushed and plumbed' nation. It is hard to believe that 2.6 billion people must do without a toilet--what the U.N. delicately refers to as `access to clean water.' However, we Americans shouldn't be congratulating ourselves on our bathroom habits. Really advanced countries like Japan think that toilet paper is gross. "Japanese toilets can, variously, check your blood pressure, play music, wash and dry your [back and front parts] by means of an in-toilet nozzle that sprays water and warm air, suck smelly ions from the air, switch on a light for you...put the seat lid down for you (a function known as the `marriage-saver'), and flush away your excreta without requiring anything as old-fashioned as a tank."

"The Big Necessity" is a serious book about "the unmentionable world of human waste and why it matters." Rose George, its author is by turns courageous, humorous (although she tries hard to avoid potty jokes), and indefatigable. Different chapters find her exploring the sewage disposal systems (or lack thereof) in Thailand, China, India, Africa, and even the sewers of London (37,000 miles) and New York (6,000 miles).

She also has a genius for the telling anecdote: when describing a slum family in Nehru Nagar, India she says: "They had one dim room for six people, smaller than the average American parking space..."

When struggling into a pair of `crotch-high waders' in preparation for her trip into a London sewer, she makes mention of "the online Yahoo! Sewer-boots fetish group..."

If you don't believe `waste matters' just take a look at Zimbabwe, which used to have one of the best waste disposal systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its sewage system was neglected by an inept government, and now over 3,000 citizens (as of 02/01/2009) have died of cholera. The same thing could happen in London or New York City. It almost did happen in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This really is an important book.

I first heard about this via an interview on BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed podcast. The book is as fascinating as it is horrifying. Two point six billion people in the world lack a toilet, or even a bucket. Imagine what it would be like if you had to excrete in public. It's dangerous, particularly for women, undignified, and unhygienic.

Because we don't like to talk about toilets, our technology is basic and wasteful. The Japanese are leaders in this field.

We can talk about the water crisis, but toilets and sewage are far more pressing issues for world health.

Rose George makes this book engaging and readable. I don't think anyone in the first world can read this book and not consider themselves rich.

The main theme of this book is the human waste management problem and how it is related to human health. The author has covered this topic from many angles: sewage systems, toilets (from very high-tech ones to the most primitive to none at all), human waste-related habits and diseases, waste treatment, various sanitation efforts, psychological matters, sociological issues, etc. She has traveled to many countries and talked to a great many people from higher-level politicians to the poorest of the poor. The writing style is clear, friendly, accessible and always very frank - the author is not shy about using the right words at the right time. The book's slant is more towards sociological/political matters rather than the scientific/technical details and processes which are discussed more superficially. In fact, in my view, there should have been more of the latter, e.g., elemental composition of sewage, the physics and chemistry of the sewage treatment processes, etc. Nevertheless, this is a very interesting book that is sure to inform most readers. It can be enjoyed by anyone, especially the sociologically-inclined.

This is an unusual review for me.

Not because I have some misguided sense of propriety. Rather, I have a healthy interest in human waste management! (Wait, is that even possible?)

Anyway, the reason that this review is unusual is because I JUST this minute finished George's book, and I immediately turned to Amazon to write its review.

"Not so remarkable," you say? Well, I've never done that before. The reason I felt impelled to instantly award this book five stars is because it does an excellent job of surveying the sewage disposal systems in place in both developed countries and the ones that are trying to be put in place in developing ones. And throughout, I was impressed by the author's willingness to "hit the bricks" and go on-site and talk with people in places like rural India, Tanzania, and China so that she could give a real-world picture.

I'll admit I would have liked this book to be longer; for example, I'd love to read George's take on sewage disposal throughout history, as I'm sure her deft touch would render the topic that much more fascinating.

Finally, I'm pleased to see that at least one fellow reviewer found this book compelling enough to now want to do something to help aid people cursed with poor or nonexistent sanitation. I feel the same way! Since George states that the World Toilet Organization (www.worldtoilet.org/) is badly in need of celebrity spokespeople, maybe some of Amazon's top reviewers could band together and qualify? (Surely this select group is universally admired!)

At times, Ms George makes a person rock back on their heels. I found the information fascinating. I found her interjections about her own 'issues' concerning 'toileting' to be repetitive and non contributory to the discussion. It would appear that she and her publisher felt the need to introduce most chapters with personal anecdotes, most of which were tiresome at best.

Despite the annoying personal information, this book is definitely worth reading from a 'general global knowledge' perspective. By the end, I had decided that people in 'developed' countries should not be able to so easily flush away their faeces. What a waste, literally. Perhaps people need to deal with what they produce, compost it, sell it, use it for their tomatoes, whatever. Our of sight, out of mind is mindlessness.

This is not to say that those who defecate into plastic bags which they then toss onto roofs are anymore mindful.

Waste generated by human beings, directly or indirectly, is a legitimate concern. Ms George does confuse me though: is she trying to inform or is she trying to entertain? There is a subtlety involved here that transcends the smell of poop. A little less 'yuk' and a bit more information would have made this book seriously readable and readably serious.

Rose George strikes me as a strident young journalist; she applies her angry intelligence to the problem of human waste. Not many people want to think about this taboo topic because western culture pretends human waste does not exist.

Just half way through the book, I find myself moved to help the majority of humans who suffer daily from poor sanitation. The implications of poor toilets and lack of hygiene are alarming. So many people live hourly in misery due to this issue. I feel grateful for the not-in-the-least-bit simple pleasure of using a clean western flush toilet knowing that my sh&% will be taken elsewhere out of my consciousness. But I feel guilty at my ignorance in taking this for granted and for allowing the environment to be harmed by the lack of value placed on this resource.

This is a compelling read; I believe Rose's book will inspire aid organizations and reformers. While we do not need to mire ourselves in the darker aspects of life, it is about time that the simple bodily function of excretion got due attention. There is enough potty humour and fun sprinkled throughout this book to keep the squeamish reading.

I salute Rose George for her courage in publishing such an important book.