Thread by @Gurdur

1/n Some days back, I did a thread just for a tweep, just explaining my POV. This time round, I'm going to discuss, for everyone, villages, toilets and rape. Feel free to flame all you like on this thread. I will be very sarcastic at times.

https://twitter.com/Gurdur/status/1327419913905074176

2/n This entire thread is for the education of an extremely dense, malicious flamer, but it also serves for y'all. In Tanzania, running-water is the exception, not the rule, for the majority of inhabitants. My photo of women fetching water from a nearby river. Hard work, daily

3/n If a village is fortunate, they will have one single communal water-tap, with water running from some central dam. This is the exception, not the rule.

My photo of villagers transporting goods (here, sugar-cane, and home-made charcoal, for selling).

4/n With no running-water, you can imagine that toilet facilities will be very basic. IFF the village is fortunate, there will be a single communal toilet, made in concrete, usually the Middle-East squat-type, connected to some version of a sewage tank. This is an *improvement*

5/n If you have a whole lot of people defecating in the bush, over time pathogens build up in the soil, get into the roots of farmed plants, lead to human disease. Hookworm, cholera, etc.. So a communal toilet with a sewage cistern is a great improvement

https://twitter.com/Gurdur/status/1328745348148367366

6/n Any such village communal toilet is usually one or two squat-type installations (i.e. no seat), in a narrow concete "cubicle", with one entrance/exit. NO door, no windows, NO roof. Are we clear? Very basic, no door, no running-water tap, no flush.

https://twitter.com/Gurdur/status/1327421197542371328

7/n "Communal" means it gets used by everyone, i.e. this is the one toilet for *everyone* in the village. "Communal" means in essence "public". Every public toilet-block anywhere is a communal toilet.
If you wonder why I spell things this basic out, it'll become clear soon.

8/n Would-be rapists haunt areas where girls & women are vulnerable. That means alone, unprepared, no-one else around, *vulnerable*. This includes toilets. Public or private: Michelle Martinez was convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl in a bathroom in a private home

9/n The risk of using a common "bush toilet" (i.e. a pit in the ground with a couple of branches across it for a seat) or a village communal toilet can be high. But don't take my word for it, instead: Bangladesh, when using a toilet requires courage:

unicef.org/rosa/stories/w…

10/n Bihar, India. When rape gets "caused" by lack of [private] toilets in the home (if you ask me, it's rapists who cause rape, but reducing vulnerability is a *necessity*, so sex-segregated communal toilets are needed, if private ones not possible).
bbc.com/news/world-asi…

11/n No need to take my word for it.

But IMvHO, sex-segregated toilets, say one for males up one end of the village, and one for females at the other end but still in sight (for oversight), would be a very good idea, albeit twice as expensive.

theprint.in/india/badaun-v…

New thread! In which why I have spelled out every tiny basic thing so much will become very clear!

https://twitter.com/Gurdur/status/1328754869298192384