Except in schoolboy jokes, the subject of human waste is rarely aired. We talk about water-related diseases when most are sanitation-related - in short, we don t mention the shit.A century and a half ago, a long, hot summer reduced the Thames flowing past the UK Houses of Parliament to a Great Stink, thereby inducing MPs to legislate sanitary reform. Today, another sanitary reformation is needed, one that manages to spread cheaper and simpler systems to people everywhere.In the byways of the developing world, much is quietly happening on the excretory frontier. In 2008, the International Year...

Except in schoolboy jokes, the subject of human waste is rarely aired. We talk about water-related diseases when most are sanitation-related - in short, we don t mention the shit. A century and a half ago, a long, hot summer reduced the Thames flowing past the UK Houses of Parliament to a Great Stink, thereby inducing MPs to legislate sanitary reform. Today, another sanitary reformation is needed, one that manages to spread cheaper and simpler systems to people everywhere. In the byways of the developing world, much is quietly happening on the excretory frontier. In 2008, the International...