Follow up thought on Sewage

As Bukky mentioned in her earlier post, people living in the blackbelt would often prefer a porch, a satellite TV, or a barbeque, to a proper sewage systems. The preferred items are status symbols. They are visible items in their life that gives them prominence in their community or puts them on par with their peers.

Let us take the example of a composting toilet. In the current situation, you flush the toilet and all the waste is taken away; you don’t have to worry about it. Now I come along and offer you a composting toilet. However every three months you have to change the tanks out back. That is a hard sell. There is no visible value being added your life. Alternatively I can offer you a porch. Now that is something that is visible from the outside. It is also a place for people to come, talk, and spend time. Even if you have to clean that porch all the time, the benefits are still very tangible.

What this suggests to me, is the problem has two main approaches.

• One, we teach people the link between proper sewage and health. This relies on them valuing health more than what they could buy with that money.
• Two, we make toilets that add value to their lives. This doesn’t have to be monetary but could instead by a status symbol.

Aside: Somewhere in Hale county, sometime ago, after a particularly heavy rain, some sewage from one lot was flowing onto another. The person in the other lot complained to the health department. The violation was cited and the person was imprisoned. However this quickly got out of hand because some many people were in violation, they would have had to arrest everyone in the area. Furthermore they were all poor black folk, which was likely going to lead to allocation of social and environmental injustice.