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The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters

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Author: Rose George
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$26.00~~
Buy New: $17.16
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Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1

ISBN: 0805082719
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.72
EAN: 9780805082715
ASIN: 0805082719

Publication Date: October 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
DIVPBAn utterly original exploration of the world of human waste that will surprise, outrage#8212;and entertain/B/PPProduced behind closed doors, disposed of discreetly, and hidden by euphemism, bodily waste is something common to all and as natural as breathing, yet we prefer not to talk about it. But we should#8212;even those of us who take care of our business in pristine, sanitary conditions. For it#8217;s not only in developing countries that human waste is a major public health threat: population growth is taxing even the most advanced sewage systems, and the disease spread by waste kills more people worldwide every year than any other single cause of death. Even in America, 1.95 million people have no access to an indoor toilet. Yet the subject remains unmentionable./PPIThe Big Necessity /Itakes aim at the taboo, revealing everything that matters about how people do#8212;and don#8217;t#8212;deal with their own waste. Moving from the deep underground sewers of Paris, London, and New York#8212;an infrastructure disaster waiting to happen#8212;to an Indian slum where ten toilets are shared by 60,000 people, Rose George stops along the way to explore the potential saviors: China#8217;s five million biogas digesters, which produce energy from waste; the heroes of third world sanitation movements; the inventor of the humble Car Loo; and the U.S. Army#8217;s personal lasers used by soldiers to zap their feces in the field./PPWith razor-sharp wit and crusading urgency, mixing levity with gravity, Rose George has turned the subject we like to avoid into a cause with the most serious of consequences./P/DIV

Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Turning the repugnant into a desire to help December 2, 2008
Rose George strikes me as a strident young journalist; she applies her angry intelligence to the problem of human waste. Not many people want to think about this taboo topic because western culture pretends human waste does not exist. br /br /Just half way through the book, I find myself moved to help the majority of humans who suffer daily from poor sanitation. The implications of poor toilets and lack of hygiene are alarming. So many people live hourly in misery due to this issue. I feel grateful for the not-in-the-least-bit simple pleasure of using a clean western flush toilet knowing that my sh% will be taken elsewhere out of my consciousness. But I feel guilty at my ignorance in taking this for granted and for allowing the environment to be harmed by the lack of value placed on this resource.br /br /This is a compelling read; I believe Rose's book will inspire aid organizations and reformers. While we do not need to mire ourselves in the darker aspects of life, it is about time that the simple bodily function of excretion got due attention. There is enough potty humour and fun sprinkled throughout this book to keep the squeamish reading. br /br /I salute Rose George for her courage in publishing such an important book.br /br /

3 out of 5 stars

This was a unique book November 25, 2008
I congratulate the author for creating a book for wide readership acceptance that is based on a subject that is normally relegated to the engineering or medical sub-specialty categories of media. In fact, just getting a book on this subject into the "New Release" or "Hot New Title" section of the major booksellers is an achievement that I admire. br / I enjoyed 3 specific chapters of the book: the behind-the-scenes look at waste sewage treatment in London New York, the review of the toilet bowl industry and how internationally the design and features of toilet models is beyond anything that Americans would perceive as existing, and finally the controversy regarding the usage of biosolids and its viability in the United States.br / Unfortunately, I felt that too much of the book was focused on the problems of sanitation and toilet hygiene in under-developed locations of the world, specifically in Asia, India, and some parts of Europe. Clearly this is where the issue of fecal-matter contamination of worker and 2.6 billion people not having access to toilet facilities is most relevant- fortunately in the USA we do not have as wide array of problems with water contamination and toilet access. I personally did not find the international aspect of the issue to be interesting, but then again I usually read books that only focus on issues or persons within the USA. (I don't read the International section of the newspaper or look for books talking about the World Cup, for example. Nothing to demean the issues, but for me it doesn't relate to me). br / I reccommend this book to those who enjoy reading about challenging International health, human welfare, and engineering issues, as well as those who may be curious as to the future of toilet fixtures in the USA. For those looking for a book that describes fecal matter in funny words and is a funny book to put next to the toilet and make your house guests blush.... look in the humor section.

2 out of 5 stars

A brave topic so poorly executed November 24, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

I will give Rose George a lot of credit for raising up an often under discussed topic and casting light on it. Still the book does a very poor job out of deciding what the issue is. After reading it, you can't tell if we are faced with a problem that is a result of societal norms, corruption, poor education, poverty or a combination of all of the above. Also, she wanders all through the topic and at times seems more interested in an engineering expose versus an indictment of failed policies and then a history of how people have gone to the bathroom. br /br /I really think this book had the potential to be hard hitting and eye opening. Sadly, its lack of focus makes it very difficult to absorb.

4 out of 5 stars

An Overview of Sanitation in the World November 20, 2008
The main theme of this book is the human waste management problem and how it is related to human health. The author has covered this topic from many angles: sewage systems, toilets (from very high-tech ones to the most primitive to none at all), human waste-related habits and diseases, waste treatment, various sanitation efforts, psychological matters, sociological issues, etc. She has traveled to many countries and talked to a great many people from higher-level politicians to the poorest of the poor. The writing style is clear, friendly, accessible and always very frank - the author is not shy about using the right words at the right time. The book's slant is more towards sociological/political matters rather than the scientific/technical details and processes which are discussed more superficially. In fact, in my view, there should have been more of the latter, e.g., elemental composition of sewage, the physics and chemistry of the sewage treatment processes, etc. Nevertheless, this is a very interesting book that is sure to inform most readers. It can be enjoyed by anyone, especially the sociologically-inclined.

5 out of 5 stars

A stunner! Recalls Lappe's _Food First_ November 15, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

A stunner and a mind opener. To me, the world is now a different place than it was when I started to read this book. It is comparable to Frances Moore Lappe's _Food First._ br /br /"2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. I don't mean that they have no toilet in their house and must use a public one with queues and fees. Or that they have an outhouse, or a rickety shack that empties into a filthy drain or pigsty. All that counts as sanitation, though not a safe variety. The people who have those are the fortunate ones. Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box. Instead, they defecate by train tracks and in forests. They do it in plastic bags and fling them through the air in narrow slum alleyways.... Four in ten people live in situations where they are surrounded by human excrement because it is in the bushes outside the village or in the city yards, left by children outside the backdoor."br /br /As an aside, I am also left awed at the sheer amount of travel Rose George had to have done to write that book.

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