Reinventing the toilet

Brian McSorely Emergencies, General, Humanitarian, Innovation, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Brian McSorley on Oxfam’s contribution to ensuring the poorest people on the planet have access to a loo. Earlier this month, Bill Gates stood up to address an international conference holding a jar full of human faeces.  In a sector that has been underfunded and overlooked for decades, The Gates Foundation has been a disruptive and positive force in raising …

All these unused toilets – who are we building them for?

Julie Lafrenière General, Protection, Refugees and IDPs, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Going to the toilet is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a woman living in a refugee camp. That’s why we’re conducting research into the use of lighting to promote safety around latrines and wash facilities, for World Toilet Day Kerry Akers and Julie Lafrenière share the key findings so far. These shocking quotes are from people …

Sustainable emergency sanitation – no longer a pipe dream!

Lucy Polson General, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

How do you install safe and sustainable toilets in crowded refugee camps which are on boggy or rocky ground? We might have the answer. For World Toilet Day Lucy Polson discusses the merits of the urine diversion dry toilet and the tiger worm toilet. How can we build sustainable and user-friendly toilet options for refugee camps? It’s an ongoing challenge …

Tigers in the toilet

Angus McBride Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Could the Tiger Toilet be a long lasting sanitation solution for refugee camps? We think it could be. anitation is a huge priority for Oxfam as we seek cost effective, appropriate and durable solutions for the many different contexts we operate in – humanitarian camps, following natural disaster and conflict, rural and urban environments. For many people across the world, …

The forgotten nexus of sanitation, hygiene & water: Is this the inhibitor to progress?

Katie Whitehouse Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

In the lead-up to World Toilet Day, Oxfam’s Katie Whitehouse looks at how water, sanitation, hygiene and development are connected. n the 1800s, towns and cities across the world, including London, were battling cholera epidemics. Before John Snow published his theory in 1849 that cholera was a waterborne disease, efforts to manage poor sanitation and hygiene were minimal. The realisation …

Making standards practical is critical to sanitation innovation for rapidly expanding urban areas in developing countries

Katie Whitehouse Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

WASH solutions can only implemented when they work in context. Coming up to World Toilet Day, Katie Whitehouse explains why, in some cases, standards may not be achievable. ontainer based sanitation social enterprises are pushing the boundaries in decentralised sanitation management and yet continue to be classified as an unimproved form of sanitation. There are social enterprises – Sanivation, SOIL, …

Toilet access is dominating programme delivery but what is the point of building more toilets if we cannot manage them?

Katie Whitehouse Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Tomorrow is World Toilet Day and here, Katie Whitehouse looks at how building a toilet isn’t the end of the story and we need sustainable approaches to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). Building a toilet and marking it as a metric achieved is relatively easy. Building a toilet and ensuring that it is continuously serviced and the waste collected transported …