Toilet
The toilet may be an everyday object, but public conveniences are disappearing & billions worldwide don't have their own. Katy Brand asks how much our embarrassment is to blame
You may call it the toilet, the loo, the privy, the potty, the can or even the bathroom, but whatever you call it, this everyday object has its roots in Bronze Age Pakistan. It even had a seat!
But how did the toilet come to be? Given one third of the world’s population still live without one, how much is our embarrassment around toilet habits to blame? And what scientific developments are underway to help make them truly universal?
Water and Sanitation Expert, Alison Parker, from Cranfield University believes part of the solution lies in a waterless toilet which creates ash, water from the waste it receives, and the energy it needs to operate, from the waste it receives.
Even in the UK, we don’t always have access to a toilet when we need one. Over the past decade, the number of public conveniences has dropped by a half, leaving older people and the disabled, who may need easy access, unable to leave their homes. Raymond Martin, Managing Director of the British Toilet Association, hopes to stop our public conveniences going down the pan.
Also featuring resident public historian Greg Jenner.
Producer: Beth Eastwood
Picture: Bathroom/Getty Images
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The toilet that turns human waste into power
Duration: 02:29
Broadcasts
- Mon 6 Jul 2020 19:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Tue 7 Jul 2020 03:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
- Tue 7 Jul 2020 08:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
- Tue 7 Jul 2020 12:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Tue 7 Jul 2020 17:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sun 12 Jul 2020 23:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
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