The big necessity
Subtitle: adventures in the world of human waste
By: Rose George
Publisher: Portobello Books
Published: 2008
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 326
ISBN-13: 9781846270697
Subjects: Sewage; Sewage disposal; Social aspects; Political aspects
Description: "[A] tour through the world of human waste - one of the biggest unchallenged causes of death worldwide and, for many, to their immense cost, the last remaining taboo. Produced behind closed doors, disposed of discreetly and hidden by euphemism, human waste is rarely out in the open in 'civilised' society ... With a journalist's nose for a story and campaigner's desire for change, Rose George ... takes us underground into the Victorian brick sewers of London and New York ... and overground to meet the heroes of India's sanitation movement. We examine the hi-tech Japanese revolution in toilet engineering, we go to sewage beds and sewage school; we investigate whether re-naming sewage sludge 'biosolids' might actually prove an eco-friendly alternative to petrol; we nip into public toilets the world over to see what they reveal about civilization; and we stand right in front of the biggest unsolved public health problem on the planet"--Cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: In the sewers : the art of drainage; title: The robo-toilet revolution : the actress and the gorilla; title: 2.6 billion : '; title: and sanitation'; title: Going to the sulabh : spade, black, dung, horse; title: China's biogas boom : a pig in every bedroom; title: A public necessity : frightening the horses; title: The battle of biosolids : bad smell, big tomatoes; title: Open defecation free India : husband wanted; must have toilet; title: In the cities : aqua-privies for Jesus; title: The end : small energy.