A Wake-Up Call

A reader’s comment brings up an essential point about people’s right to safe and sanitary homes and the value of the onsite treatment profession

Sometimes it takes a comment from a reader to jar an editor out of his typical thought patterns. My attitude generally has been that Onsite Installer is a technical publication to help treatment professionals expand their knowledge and skills.

That means we haven’t veered much into human interest stories, although we have reported occasionally on Habitat for Humanity projects or other initiatives involving charitable work in the onsite field.

 

Taking notice

Then in April we published a story about the Alabama Onsite Wastewater Association (AOWA) and its efforts to install onsite systems for families in the state’s impoverished Black Belt region. It’s a worthy project of course, but just how worthy did not hit me until a reader commented:

What a disturbing article. It’s hard to believe that in this day and age people are being forced to live like they did back in the 1700s and 1800s, or in the slums of South America or Africa. And what’s even more disturbing is that once again the lawmakers on both sides of the [US/Canada] border sit on their hands and either spend very little or nothing at all to ameliorate the problem. And yes, it happens in Canada, as well.

You would think that two of the richest nations in the world, who have worked together to put men on the moon and explore space beyond the wildest expectations, could put something together so that sewage treatment and availability of safe potable water is in every single household.

It seems ludicrous that along with the infrastructure failures all over North America, now we have people getting sick from being poisoned by raw sewage, and then being forced to pay for their own medical care, which they really cannot afford either.

 

Worse than ludicrous

And that made me sit up straight. The Black Belt of Alabama is far from being the only place in the country where rural sanitation is poor because residents’ septic systems are failing or nonexistent. We’ve reported on such conditions elsewhere. And it is ludicrous – shameful in fact – that as a wealthy nation we allow them to exist.

When you think of it, proper sanitation is just as basic a necessity as food, shelter, clothing and medical care. Yet we allow people who can’t afford those things – let alone a costly septic system – to live in conditions that endanger their own families’ health and public health in general.

My aim here is not to assign blame. It’s to ask that we as an industry acknowledge a blind spot our society has. It’s certainly not possible, economically or otherwise, for the onsite sector to undertake to correct such a big and serious problem on its own. It is possible, though, for the industry to advocate more aggressively for government policies that would help right these wrongs.

 

Solutions at hand

On one hand we have a significant public health issue. On the other we have an industry – of designers, installers, manufacturers, regulators and service contractors – that collectively knows how to solve it, technically at least. What’s missing is broad awareness of the problem, genuine concern about it, and the social conscience and political will to invest in solving it.

Political will is perhaps the toughest part because in the end that means spending public money – not a popular activity. I guess in this as in other cases it comes down to deciding what kind of country and what kind of people we want to be.

What are your experiences with sanitation issues in poor rural areas? Have you, or has your association, taken steps at the local level to help make things better? What do you think should be done to move us in the direction of a country where healthful sanitary conditions are available to everyone?

Please share your stories by sending a note to editor@onsiteinstaller.com or by calling me at 877/953-3301. I promise to respond, and we will publish a sampling of comments in a future edition. Let’s take a little time and shine a spotlight on this issue. It’s important to our country, and it’s a chance for the onsite industry to demonstrate its value – so often unappreciated by so many.



Discussion

Comments on this site are submitted by users and are not endorsed by nor do they reflect the views or opinions of COLE Publishing, Inc. Comments are moderated before being posted.