Should you start giving a shit?

World toilet day saw BCU students head out on a walking tour around Birmingham city with the aim to raise awareness of the sanitation crisis that many might ignore as taboo.

The main aim of the day was to inform people of the issues surrounding access to sanitation. It is unknown to most people that one-third of the global population do not have access to a toilet and that a further one in ten people still do not have access to safe water.

Throughout the tour, the students pushed a toilet on wheels and encouraged people to interact with it.

Dan Kelsall, who is part of the latrine team involved with this project said:

“Our own research into slum conditions across the world was a real eye-opener. I didn’t really consider the full impact that the lack of such a basic requirement had”.

Dan and his team have future plans to design a latrine system which will be implemented in Shishizhen, China.

“We can’t really go into too much detail at this stage as the hard work begins now.

“However, by the end of next semester, we aim to have a complete design ready for a company within China to source and help the village-folk implement it.”

The mobile toilet received quite a reaction, ending up entirely covered with signatures from those who had come into contact with it that day.

Dan said [about his motivation]: “It’s rare you get presented an opportunity to aid change, even with something considered small and insignificant to us who find bathrooms so accessible”.

To find out more information about World toilet day, visit: http://www.worldtoiletday.info