In a recent piece on PRI.org author Patrick Winn covers a dilemma that is slowly coming to the forefront of global sanitation.
When defecating, what do you do? Squat or sit?
In developed countries it is often thought that sitting toilets are the norm. But as other countries economies gain more and more momentum (particularly in the middle class) there’s a paradigm shift occurring – more and more countries, regardless of wealth, are sticking to stick with squat-based toilets. In fact, some countries like Japan are offering both in their public restrooms!
What makes one culture sit and the other squat largely comes down to perception. And we are all saying the same thing. Generally speaking, one chooses sitting or squatting because they firmly believe one is a more hygienic method than the other or they believe that, anatomically, it is easier to poop while squatting.
We’ve seen this in our toilet project as well! We originally had a ceramic bowl in our prototype and quickly changed it to a squat plate to accommodate the majority of our user base.