SHAHANI SINGH

Most Nepalis and travellers to Nepal will have built a toilet paper 'nest' around the seats of a public bathrooms, to avoid direct contact with the commode. Others still prefer the no-contact squatting toilet because they are presumed to be relatively safer.

Microbiologists say that disease-causing germs do not survive long on toilet seats and transmission would require the presence of a sufficient number of germs to cause illness. But one couldÂïï��ï�� never be sure in Nepal. Are public toilets here even studied? The danger of contracting external germs lies in other places too: the toilet door handle, the faucet, and the flush handle, which some of us might have just kicked and pulled down to avoid hand contact, leaving others to contract the germs from our shoe soles. Who cares? The business is done with, isn't it?

Apathy, disregard and ignorance has made answering nature's call outside of the home fraught with danger. Men have it easier, since they don't even have to duck behind a bush, whereas women have had to innovate and make their own urinals, as has the American invention, 'Go Girl', - a funnel-like device that can be adjusted so that women can stand and urinate and avoid the hassle of hovering over filthy toilet seats.

Perhaps a little exercise that would make our disregard for public hygiene glare at us in the face would do us good. Such must have been the thought behind the potty photo prize announced by Clean Energy Nepal (CEN), in collaboration with Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) and the Resource Centre Network Nepal (RCNN), all of whom work to achieve one of the Millennium Development Goals of achieving sanitation utopia.

There are three categories of toilets that you have to capture: household, institutional, and community toilets: all of which will demonstrate the difference in standards, and perhaps also the difference in attitudes, hygiene, and socio-economic status. The competition is open to ages 15-35, and the pictures will be exhibited on World Toilet Day, 19 November and the winners will be awarded too.

http://cleanenergynepal.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/brochure-52.jpg
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene - Resources Centre Network Nepal, 4493188

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