The Amazon rainforest, known as the world's 'lungs', is the source of most of our medicines and is one of the largest nautral carbon sinks in existence. The Brazillian government, therefore, seems to think that it is worth taking the risk of promoting urinating in the shower as a way of saving its water that would otherwise be used to flush toilets.
The SOS Mata Atlantica campaign is not taking the p*ss with its suggestion, taken up and sponsored by the government, becoming more and more present on TV. According to the organisation, a household could save 1157 gallons of water each year juse by flushing the toilet once less daily. People of all ages and backgrounds are shown doing it in the advert shown at peak television time, altering people's image of what is socially acceptable.
Brazillian President Lula's programmes such as Bolsa Familia have seen millions lifted out of poverty and he recently announced a plan to halt deforestation in the Amazon. Speaking at the World Social Forum this year, he said: "Many people speak witout knowing that there are almost 25 million people that live and want to work in the Amazon, have access to goods, and therefore, don't want the Amazon to be a sanctuary of humanity. People who visit Brazil must know the following: take care of what's yours, Brazil will take care of what's of its own".(1)
Im not sure if taking the attitude that 'we'l do what we like here, you do as you like there' is best for dealing with the environment in the developing world, but his policies so far speak for themselves, and here is the latest with this advert
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XZ_DNc1zbxI?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XZ_DNc1zbxI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ_DNc1zbxI
Ive mentioned urine being an excellent break down for the nutrients that can come out of poo, Ive read of people peeing on their lawns in order to release nitrogen to grow grass, we've talked about recycling shower water and now peeing in the shower.. so-
Would you be prepared to?? What other schemes to save water are in place where you live?
(1)- http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/lula-da-silva-says-amazon-not-a-sanctuary.php
thanks for joining the topic of sanitation. recentlly I’ve made an conclusion about the topic on the platform. your artical shows how everything is interconnected and that we really need an open-mined ideas. thanks for sharing.
to link you
http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/more_about_toilets_-_animations
That’s brilliant coverage Iwona, and hope Warsaw is well:)
Another angle I tried to come at for this before it that it is a sexist problem as well:
http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/the_poo_taboo/
Thank you for sharing!
I’ve already linked that
I like that post a lot.
I love the title!
interesting Mark, really interesting.. even if I think that in some parts of the world that proposal may have some problems because of cultural reasons, but I think it would really save a lot of water.