The Importance of Public Toilets and Public Sanitation

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Who would have thought the lack of sanitation could be deadly? According to the research I have done on public toilets and sanitation in India, the percentage on the lack of sanitation is incredibly high. This particular topic caught my eye because I had knowledge about the public toilets in India. For example, it was already brought to my knowledge that 53 percent of India’s population is defecating out in the open. It was very interesting and I wanted to know more about it. India is a large country and is filled with a variety of health problems like no public toilets, unsanitary facilities, and environmental sanitation issues in general.
Katherine’s Boo Behind the Beautiful Forevers reveals that the lack of sanitation is a cause to some of the deaths in Mumbai. In chapter 7, Fatima is in a hospital where the poor people of Mumbai go to seek medical attention. The nurses of Cooper Hospital want to avoid touching her. Her husband has to apply burn cream to his wife himself since the nurses refuse to do so, and that is their job. There is one doctor who does not have a problem with touching Fatima. He would come in and stretch her arms out and as he did that, her bandages would come off. As a doctor, you would think he would go get new bandages to put on Fatima; instead, he put the same bandages back on her. The doctor putting the dirty bandages back on Fatima might have added to her death. Katherine Boo might have added this scene in the book to portray to the readers that India is so much poorer than we realize. People were dying every day at Cooper Hospital in Mumbai under different conditions and it being so unsanitary makes the deaths that occur even worse. Boo made it clear that the lack of cleanliness is high and something...

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...at the average household in a programme community could save as much as 7 United States dollars per month (or 5% of monthly household cash expenditures) in coping costs, but would not reduce illness costs. Poorer, socially marginalized households benefited more, in alignment with programme objectives. (535)
This evaluation had a moderate but significant impact on the reported adoption of taps and toilets. It was discovered that 13% more private tap use and 7% more private toilets in programme villages compared to control villages. The impact on hand washing or home water treatment was not found. The changes that were happening in tap and toilet use reduced costs in the households. This also stopped people from going out and defecating in the open, along with decreasing the sanitation-related diseases going on. This affected many lives in India in a positive way.

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