From Frida Inta, Westport, New Zealand
Graham Lawton wrote about the growing worries that a stable supply of clean water around the world is threatened. The flush toilet was the beginning of the downfall of modern society. To mix human faeces with 4 litres of water a few billion times a day is the most heinous rebuff to nature. Never mind that it is treated via costly infrastructure, it is still a colossal degradation of clean water. No municipal treatment will restore the water to its former quality. I have used a composting toilet for many years now, and composting (or municipal biogas) is the only feasible solution for human faeces (26 August, p 36).
