Tackling The 'Flying Toilets' Of Kibera

Tackling The 'Flying Toilets' Of Kibera
TO ILLUSTRATE THE PAPER OF RICHARD INGHAM - A notice to use Peepoo bags is pictured as part of of the 6th World Water Forum, on March 13, 2012 in Marseille, southern France. PeePoo bags are alternatives to the 'flying toilets' (plastic bags filled with human shit and then flung into the public street) used in Nairobi shantytowns. Created by the company PooPeople, they're lined with a thin gauze layer filled with urea powder, which neutralizes the bacteria in human feces. Once filled, the bags turn the poop into fertilizer, then biodegrade. AFP PHOTO / GERARD JULIEN (Photo credit should read GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images)
TO ILLUSTRATE THE PAPER OF RICHARD INGHAM - A notice to use Peepoo bags is pictured as part of of the 6th World Water Forum, on March 13, 2012 in Marseille, southern France. PeePoo bags are alternatives to the 'flying toilets' (plastic bags filled with human shit and then flung into the public street) used in Nairobi shantytowns. Created by the company PooPeople, they're lined with a thin gauze layer filled with urea powder, which neutralizes the bacteria in human feces. Once filled, the bags turn the poop into fertilizer, then biodegrade. AFP PHOTO / GERARD JULIEN (Photo credit should read GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images)

Nairobi, Kenya - If you have ever attended a music festival, chances are you are familiar with the dreaded panic of looking for the nearest bathroom when nature calls. Now imagine that same panic, but this time being inside your own home.

However, instead of walking down your corridor to the bathroom, you have to walk a few blocks, perhaps in the dark, to the nearest toilet - a hole in the ground, reeking with stale urine and sometimes full of waste, shared by a dozen other families. This is the reality for many slum dwellers in Kenya.

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