Regenerate the social & natural fabric in Oaxaca

Last weekend we held our workshop on dry sanitation at El Pedregal Demonstration Center. Around 20 people from colonias at the outskirts of Oaxaca city and surrounding rural communities attended. We do this kind of horizontal passing on quite often, as dry composting toilettes represent an excellent tool to face both water scarcity and poor sanitation conditions.

As often happens in this kind of gatherings, we shared work, food and experiences. Quite an interesting discussion came out. “Funny”, someone said, that the flush toilette has become such a symbol of development, the American way of life. We all agreed that the biggest limitation for spreading such technologies as dry sanitation is not technical or economical but the dominant social paradigm. “should be the other way around” argued a middle-aged woman, school teacher from Oaxaca city. “using a lot of clean water just to take human wastes away from our noses is actually the backward and non-scientific way of thinking”.

For the next days I kept on reflecting on the issue; Dilute, take away and forget might just as well be the motto of sanitation in Western industrialized societies. It occurred to me that at the end of the day, the underdogs, aboriginal peoples and rural communities are ahead in building the new paradigms that the World so urgently needs, through their concrete actions: acting locally, going back to earth, closing cycles, regaining the hydrosocial balance, using convivial tools.

Our task is to help giving additional scientific and technical support for these new ideas and enhance its passing on. And in this, your contribution through GlobalGiving is decisive.

Thank you!

Links:

• General Assembly of the Oaxacan Water Forum