The World's Toilet Crisis: Vanguard Trailer

What an incredible episode! I was complety unaware of this world wide problem! When I now take a shit, I will not take it for granted. Thank You for again opening my eyes , educating my mind ,upsetting my stomach and making me loose my dinner!

I think Adam liked saying "shit" in almost every sentence. What a stomach turning documentary (but a good one)! Wonder how he got the short end of the stick to do this story.

Oh Adam, how I love that you use the actual word 'shit' instead of feces!

what bothers me the most, is though this is great information!!! CURRENT TV CANNOT PUT THE FULL EPISODE ON ITS WEBSITE, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU CURRENT??

It's not a toilet crisis! It's a population crisis. Toilets have only been in existence for a couple of hundred years. There are too many people on this planet.

"The World's Toilet Crisis" was an opportunity to really address the horrible old Victorian idea of shitting in perfectly good H2O via a toilet. You guys fell short.

The world needs better options than our "first world" idea of the traditional toilet! Remember, the "first world" started the same as some of the places you showed. London was the same cess-pool you showcase in India back in the 19th century! I suggest looking up "The Humanure Handbook" by Joseph Jenkins or "The Toilet Papers" by Sim Van der Ryn. Jenkins book may not be practical for everyone, but even then, why were composting toilets not even mentioned in your segment? A traditional composting (more accurately a "dehydrating") toilet loses up to 90% of it's original mass due to the dehydration, decomposition and anaerobic respiration by naturally present bacterias and microbes.

Why is it that water seems to be inextricably linked with how we deal with our excreta? The only part of your segment that really demonstrated a solution was the fertilizer bit. Then only to have Adam make some stab about using it to grow food! That is what I'm doing in my own back yard, really! Let's not continue to be so close minded. I know our noses and mouths point the opposite direction from our assholes...but we'll never be able to sever our quite natural and daily connection with our colon!
These are the ideas we need to share with L.A., let alone Indonesia or India! Imagine if we all drank our precious water instead of shitting in it, eh?

Thanks, Aaron in New Hampshire
froginsa@gmail.com

to many people to many babies to much ignorance and greed. get ready for a more shity world. hapatitus will be on the rise next / so scary

Gota give you props man. Watched this the other day and Like Jamaecd said it was shocking but you left me with a little hope.

It's not only India , 90% of Vietnamese toilets are in the ponds, rivers and on the fields.... This shit-problem cut off all your visitors to your beautiful countries .
I think , the same " shit" happened in China, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia ,Cambot,Laos ..... well ,all around Asia and Africa .

This show was a shocking tear-jerker for me. We are all humans living on the same planet. Why do we have so many inadequacies amongst us? This show is about our human dignity. When you close that door, and do your "business", and flush that toilet, think about the other 40% of our human race who have no such luxury and commit to doing something to decrease that number. Starting today. I will get involved and commit to making a difference.

40% world population didn't have access to toilets, 50% world population has access to their toilets , but that's Not 20th century standard ( don't talk about 21st century -it's expensive !) they 're on 17th century toilets including VietNam, Cambotdia , Thailand ..... I was there , because of their toilets , I will never come back there ! That was the hell of smells and shits !
Thanks America standard of toilets .

My attempt to "add to this world" through education:

http://www.flowthefilm.com/trailer

http://article31.org/

These people need birth control not toilets. An estimated 2.6 billion people, about 40% of the world's population, do not even have "a pot to piss in", but they reproduce like rabbits. I have no sympathy for these "poor, impoverished, and ignorant people". "Hey baby, I have no food, water or shelter... Wanna have sex?" Let them all die, its natural selection!

I do not understand why anyone would live this way. This is very disturbing. Why in this day and age would people live like this ? this just makes no sense. Also no I am afraid to buy organic foods as they may be grown in this type of fertilizer. No wonder they have such a high infant mortality rate.

People just stupid. Why they are taking shit to the river. They simply can make toilets by their own hands. Wooden toilet it's so simple. A deep hole in the ground and a wooden toilet on it.. that's it. In Russia a lot of people use them and no one take a shit where they are eat. If people don't know or just don't wont to do it I don't know what to say further... Disgusting

Shocked by this story and "just the facts"! This needs to really get out. Cultural disregard for hygiene and defecation "technology" must be showcased. I am more worried about what is in the water than what is in the air -- globally. Adam Yamaguchi did a great service by doing this story. He deserves the "Golden Throne" Award! I am telling everyone I know about this story and I am looking to see if I can donate a toilet. Considering the early historical use of toilets in Europe......I am flabbergasted by the "sustainability" of this ignorance in China and India. No country should be allowed to host the Olympics that doesn't provide basic infrastructure to its own citizens.
Public Health & Infection Control nurses unite! THIS IS HORRIBLE.
Suggestion to the Global Governors -- Tax anyone without a toilet and SEPTIC TANK that isn't on city sewer lines. Provide urban and suburban infrastructures for sewage treatment and collection zones around every river, stream and contaminated body of water.
I favor international TRADE INJUNCTIONS until minimally hygienic defecation is instituted globally.......and international inspectors give them "Charmin" certification!

This episode was very eye opening. It reminds us all of everything we take for granted sometimes. What I failed to understand was why some of what seems to me like basic common was not put to use to help ease up the problem. I agree simply burying the "shit" would at least prevent less tracking and smell and what about designating one area in the village as the shit area and not just anywhere they decide to squat, literally. It also doesn't make sense to wash your self after doing your business in the same water that later you're going to have to drink from. I don't think doing any of these things takes money or can't be done because of oppression and poverty.

this was SHIT-tastic!!! Don't get me wrong, I love that current tv is shedding light on the issue. but i thought it was lacking the historical background of structural/institutional oppression that the poor in indonesia is sufferring from. The film somehow overlooked how or why the indonesian poor folk ended up without the access to such facilities in the first place (running water, adequate sewage system). It is quite telling when the program quoted a study from the world bank about how lack of public sanitation is driving down the country's GDP (well no shit, einstein) without even mentioning the structural adjustments imposed by the world bank (or his twin bro the IMF) onto 'global south' countries (like indonesia). The structural adjustment requires divestment from necessary public infrastructures (e.g. education, transportation, sanitation, etc) in order to benefit private multi-national corporations and 1st world countries. To somehow mask the root of the problem and only to show that "this is the simply the way 3rd world poor lives" is deeply patronizing. And to somehow offer the only solution of clever entreprenuership (entre-manuer-ship?) is naive and ultimately damaging. I will say seeing adam bending down his fine ass so many times placated me a tiny bit from what otherwise a typically condescending and self-congratulatory documentary we've all seen a thousand times before. This film could've been so much more but instead it is more or less equivalent to a commercial of james dobson building water wells for poor african children.

Wow, this was definitely and eye opener- I really like the community involvement movement in Indonesia, and hopefully the same program (tweaked culturally, obviously) could work in India and many other countries who have public defecation. This was a very educational social piece- Damn, India..talk about the lake of fire..a lake that farts- wow.
Kudos to you Adam- kudos!

Adam... You have done such a good job. I could never have imagined it as vividly as you captured in this episode. Something like a toilet is such a normal thing that it is hard to understand what it would be without. It really is shocking how many are without and seeing those individuals working at getting the toilets installed was very heart warming. I will never use a toilet again without being thankful for those that came before me to make it a standard way of life here in the USA.

I am so glad that this story was aired! I am a Registered Nurse, as well as have a Bachelor's of Science degree in Environmental Studies, with a concentration in Environmental Law and Policy from the University of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY. I did a lengthy paper on this topic about 4 years ago. Something needs to be done about the World's clean water shortage, and I am so thankful that Vanguardis raising public awareness. Most people in the United States are very disconnected from the way the rest of the world lives. Everything in nature flows in a cyclical rhymth, with every facet of the environment exchanging and interacting. It won't be too long before everyone feels the effects of the clean water crisis. The most directly affected are the poor who have no one advocating for environmental justice on their behalf.

Yo, I have neva n my life even remotely imagined n e thing of dis nature existed n da world. As I watched dis episode I was blown away, especially wen he began to speak about wat da children have to endure. I looked at my son n thanked da Lord I was born n america cuz i couldve been n da same situation had i been born wit different parents n a different part of da world. We get pissed off wen our government do fucked up things to us dat effects us but n no way do we even go thru wat they go thru on the eastern part of the world. Next my time state (NY) or even da federal government do sumthing hurtful , dumb as hell or just plain fucked up, I wil think twice before I begin to complain cuz it could b just the same ove here in america.

Im thankful for having indoor pluming and a porceline throne.

u shoulda make a short movie about ur team cause they work hard also on getting the background information =) ---if u did already tell me please by the way found this site today and i have to say good job

+1 thing u could make better in the film about crap all over the world the majority of the impressions were like "we show u what we want u to see" like all people happy when they finally got a toilet , yes of course it betters their life over a long process but for now where shall they take the money from, arent their more improtant things for them then conterminated water like staying alive? -sry for wrong gramma and stuff--- german+pretty young

To all of you who wrote ignorant comments about people's situations that you yourselves have never experienced or come close to experiencing (poverty), you should be more aware of your own potential for compassion and understanding.

Typically, people are living in poverty because of political corruption within any given society. These people are not educated about the importance of hygiene, much in the same way that you are not educated in the fields of engineering, biology, chemistry or the like.

What is the point in making inhumane comments about people who are suffering? These people are suffering because people like us do nothing and use up too much of the earth's resources. Think about your life and realize that you are privledged because someone looked after you and cared for you; and, you just happen to be born into a rich country. You didn't do anything special to get your toliet or anything else you achived in life. You could just have easily been born without a toilet.

Don't talk poorly about someone if you have never walked in their shoes.

Great episode. Really enlightening, and should be really influential. I feel like it would be even more influential though of Yamaguchi wasn't saying "shit" the entire episode though. It almost makes it like a joke. It would be much more pro if he said feces and defecate. Good episode nonetheless.

Can't these people at least build outhouses or latrines? Dumb asses! (no pun intended)

I admire Yamaguchi's bravery to take on such an assignment. Being the executive producer I find it hard to believe he had to be the one that was so much in the forefront during this investigation and reporting.

India is so gross, it's not even funny. They also have tons of chemical sewage they are not dealing with properly

Talk about a thankless assignment Adam. I'd love to know how you ended up with it. Did you volunteer? The short straw? Who's idea was it originally?

At any rate, kudos for taking it on... but I won't be eating prior to watching this one.

Human fecal matter used to be considered a valuable agricultural fertilizer before widespread use of petrol-based fertilizers. Japanese farmers in the past actually paid travelers to relieve themselves in the fields. Now it seems that, in some parts of the world, the stuff is not only undesirable, but also hated for widespread infection and death. What a shame the people don't understand what a valuable resource they are sitting on. Here are a few ideas aid organizations might consider in solving the problem of infectious diseases. First, the simplest solution is to encourage people to at least bury their waste. That will at least keep somebody else from stepping into it. Also, soil micro-organisms can decompose fecal matter much more rapidly if it's underground or in a composter. For high waste-production centers, particularly in areas without much hope of building a sewer system, I recommend composting. Aerobic composting may be the better solution when disease is a concern, but it requires a carefully-measured 30:1 carbon/nitrogen mix. A correctly-mixed compost pile with a volume of 1 cubic meter or more, can sustain temperatures above 70 degrees Celsius, a key level necessary to kill many pathogenic organisms. Another slower, but just as effective, composting method developed in Japan is called EM Bokashi. EM Bokashi has been used in large-scale composting and water-purification projects with success. I've also heard of using shellfish to successfully clean polluted waterways.

toilets aren’t magic... they need the infrastructure first. This is like worrying about a broken wheel on our cart when we don’t even have a horse to pull the cart in the first place… plumbing water and sewage BEFORE toilets. I’d recommend the good old outhouse and pit thing… but they also need jobs and an infrastructure would provide that. So I guess the problem is who’s going to start it and finance it right? I don’t have the answer to that.

I have not watched the episode yet, but plumbing has not existed for that long. Animals go to the bathroom in the forest and the jungle. Human waste is also biodegradable. Is there not a simple way to contain waste and keep it away from food and water supplies? It does not seem like something that is terribly hard to figure out.

I couldn't help but notice that this commercial is different than the one on TV... The one that flashed a dead baby at me... Without warning... THAT was fucked up man.

I liked the first single utterance of "shit", after that though it gets redundant and losses it's potency.

Actually, these people could at least dig a deep hole instead of poopin on the open ground and in the water. I know their conditions are deplorable in many cases but at least it would improve their current situation.

40 percent of the earth's population...
Wow.

This is crucial stuff here. Vanguard really does go where all other investigative journalists fear to tread. Keep up the outstanding work.