User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Tuvala

Public toilets in Tuvala are rare. Schools and hospitals sometimes do not have them. When public toilets do exist, they are often not maintained. There is a lack of sewage treatment options, leading to ground water pollution and resulting in a negative impact on the economy.

Public toilets
The Tuvaluan word for toilet is falefoliki.

Composting toilets and septic tanks began to be more widely used in Tuvalu i in the 1990s, which spurred the growth of public toilet installation, but local councils rarely maintained these facilities and the underlying infrastructure. The WMU is in charge of maintaining public toilets in the country. It was created in 2000 to do this and other sanitation related efforts, including emptying septic tanks.

An issue in developing countries is toilet access in schools. Only 46% of schools in developing countries have them. Many schools around the world in 2018 did not have toilets, with the problem particularly acute in parts of Africa and Asia. Only one in five primary schools on earth had a toilet and only one in eight secondary schools had public toilets. Many schools in Tuvala in the 2000s did not have toilets for student and staff use. When schools lacked toilets, students often used nearby bushes and beaches to relieve themselves. The lack of toilet access was compounded by lack of water tanks on the property, requiring students to bring their own drinking water from home. In 2005, Vaitupu Primary School had one toilet for girls and one toilet for boys on the premises which serviced 270 students and 13 staff members.

At the hospital in Kaupule in 2005, there was no toilet for patients on the ward to use. AT the time, nurses were asking for them to be installed, with a men's and women's toilets.

Toilet type and consequences
On Funafuti, groundwater pollution meant groundwater was rarely used in the 2000s except for things like flushing toilets. At the same time, toilet type in the country often depended on the economic class of the household. Upper-class families had flush toilets, while working class families had pour toilets or practiced open defecation. In 2002, there were 424 total flush toilets on Funafuti, 101 on Vaitupu, 31 on Nanumea, 26 on Nukulaelae, 22 on Nukufetau, 11 on Niutao, 9 on Nui, and five each on Niulakita and Nanumage. In 2005, 82.5% of the top 20% of earners in Funafuti in 2005 had flush toilets with septic tanks in their homes while only 34.0% of the same group in the Outer Islands did. In the bottom 20% of earners in Funafuti, 57.1% had a water seal toilet and 33.3% had a flush toilet with a septic tank. In the Outer Islands, 51.1% in the bottom 20% had water seal toilets while 25.0% had flush toilets with septic tanks in their home. 4.8% and 19.6% respectively had no toilets in their home. Most with septic tanks did not clean or monitor them regularly. Poor sanitation in Tuvalu cost the economy around AUD$500,000 a year in the early 2000s. Open defecation is practiced in Tuvala, some of if with class implications as a result of toilet access. Popular places for the practice of open defecation were beaches and bushes. This posed problems in Funafuti but fewer problems in the Outer Islands.

One of the most economically effective toilets in Tuvalu was composting toilets, both installing new ones or adding them to existing public toilet facilities. Fixing and replacing broken septic systems was not viable given the island's local economic situation. While composting toilets proved beneficial in the 2000s, they saw the most usage in private residences. Public composting toilets were rarely maintained. EcoSan composting toilets were installed in Tuvalu in the 2010s as a way to try to reduce ground water pollution. These were more effective at the household level.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Tuvala
Public toilet access around the world is most acute in the Global South, with around 3.6 billion people, 40% of the world's total population, lacking access to any toilet facilities. 2.3 people in the the Global South do not have toilet facilities in their residence. Despite the fact that the United Nation made a declaration in 2010 that clean water and sanitation is a human right, little has been done in many places towards addressing this on a wider level. Western style sit toilets are more popular among the emerging middle and upper class around the world.

Around one in three women in the world in 2016 lacked access to a toilet. Public toilets, depending on their design, can be tools of social exclusion. The lack of single-sex women's toilets in developing countries makes it harder for women to participate in public life, in education and in the workplace. In developing countries, unisex public toilets have been a disaster because they make women feel unsafe and fail to consider local religious beliefs.

Foreigners visiting the South Pacific in the 1990s were advised to bring their own white toilet paper, and tampons or sanitary napkins as they were not commonly found in the region. Septic systems and any sewage systems were not strong enough in the 1990s for tampons to be thrown into them.

In the 1980s and 1990s, many people in the Pacific region had the misconception that HIV and AIDS could be transmitted by using public toilets.