JUST how many comfort rooms do we really need in our homes? We have three in our Manila condo. A wealthy man I know has nine in his Forbes Park home. How many do you have?
American house builders say a decent ratio of bathrooms is one per bedroom. "This just ensures that with each resident, you’ll be providing a comfortable chance for them to make their own personalized space," said one building company's representative, adding that "powder rooms are for your guests, and must be scattered throughout the areas of the house where you will be entertaining."
That is of course for the rich world. But what about the poor?
Many of us may be shocked to learn that more than half the world's population cannot even boast of one decent toilet.
According to the United Nations, 4.5 billion people live without proper sanitation which means that human waste, on a massive scale, is not being captured or treated, thereby contaminating the water and soil that sustain life. Some 892 million people still poop in the open. The UN says we are turning our environment into an open sewer.
To raise awareness of what the UN calls a grave sanitation crisis, it has designated every November 19 as World Toilet Day to inspire action to tackle this critical global problem in the developing world.
"Toilets save lives because human waste spreads killer diseases," said a UN spokesperson. "The impact of exposure to human waste on what is a monumental scale has a devastating impact on public health, living and working conditions, nutrition, education, and economic productivity across the world."
"Sadly, the world is not on track to ensure availability and sustainable management of sanitation and water for all by 2030."
One-third of schools worldwide – many of them in the Philippines – do not provide any toilet facilities.
But help is on hand for some local schools here with charitable foundations and community groups building much-needed toilets when the authorities simply do not have the funds or they have other priorities.
One such volunteer group is Tuloy Pinoy Negros. The Hiligaynon Group of Switzerland - Negrenses working in Switzerland - funds a program of building toilets in schools in Negros Occidental. Bacolod-based member Dondi Poblador said work will begin soon on toilets for a school high up on Patag Mountain near Silay City.
Poblador added that parents are always keen for their children to have decent toilets and they volunteer their labor to get the projects completed.
Another group helping out is the Philippine Basic Needs Outreach Program. They reckon a basic, but clean single toilet for a school can be built for as little as P21, 000.
As worthy as these efforts are, they only scratch the surface of the problem. Some 20 million Filipinos lack access to basic toilet facilities, especially in rural areas. And seven million Filipinos still do their business in fields and on wasteland.
Alas, it's children who suffer the most.
"Diseases caused by unsafe or unhygienic practices greatly decrease children’s chances to successful school completion and healthy growth,” said a Unicef Philippines representative.
“In rural areas where poverty is high, inequalities are aggravated by this cycle of, and a link between, the lack of access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation and poor health and low productivity.”
Almost two million people worldwide die from faecally-transmitted diseases every year. Most deaths are among children, whose small bodies put them at high risk for fatal dehydration from diarrhea.
Surely something for all of us to think about next time we have the privilege to sit down and relax in our comfortable comfort rooms. Can you imagine what life would be like without one?