The Big Necessity » (First Edition)

Rose George is a freelance writer and journalist who has written for The New York Times, Slate, and The Guardian. She lives in London.

“One smart book . . . delving deep into the history and implications of a daily act that dare not speak its name.” —Newsweek

Acclaimed as “extraordinary” (The New York Times) and “a classic” (Los Angeles Times), The Big Necessity is on its way to removing the taboo on bodily waste—something common to all and as natural as breathing. We prefer not to talk about it, but we should—even those of us who take care of our business in pristine, sanitary conditions. Disease spread by waste kills more people worldwide every year than any other single cause of death. Even in America, nearly two million people have no access to an indoor toilet. Yet the subject remains unmentionable.

Moving from the underground sewers of Paris, London, and New York (an infrastructure disaster waiting to happen) to an Indian slum where ten toilets are shared by 60,000 people, The Big Necessity breaks the silence, revealing everything that matters about how people do—and don’t—deal with their own waste. With razor-sharp wit and crusading urgency, mixing levity with gravity, Rose George has turned the subject we like to avoid into a cause with the most serious of consequences.

The New York Times - Dwight Garner

Ms. George is the kind of writer—tenacious and clever—who will put you in mind of both Jessica Mitford (in her expose The American Way of Death) and Erin Brockovich. She is angry about what she discovers, and she offers the kind of memorable details that make her points stick…It's a busy, filthy, complicated world to which Ms. George has turned her estimable attentions. She is convincing when she writes, "to be uninterested in the public toilet"—or the private one, for that matter—"is to be uninterested in life."

Introduction Examining the Unmentionables 1

1 In the Sewers 15

2 The Robo- Toilet Revolution 39

3 2.6 Billion 65

4 Going to the Sulabh 89

5 China's Biogas Boom 109

6 A Public Necessity 129

7 The Battle of Biosolids 149

8 Open Defecation - Free India 173

9 In the Cities 199

10 The End 225

Notes 239

Further Reading 275

Filmography 277

Acknowledgments 279

Index 281