Is the toilet humanity's most important invention? | DW Analysis

Penicillin, vaccines, organ transplants. All these innovations are rightfully hailed as milestones of medical advance. But another invention more than deserves to be held in the same regard. The toilet.

You should give a crap about your crapper, because it has a huge influence on your life and humanity in general. Many of us take modern sanitation for granted. The vast majority of humans that walked this earth at some point, if they had done their business, they were kind of stuck with it. And that is by no means a problem of the past.

Even today many people around the world don’t have access to adequate sanitation. That has dramatic consequences, from disease to violence and negative impact on the local economy.

Not the least because of the economic potential of the market sector itself. Throughout history, more or less sophisticated sanitation appeared and disappeared again. The first we know of showed up around 5,000 years ago in places like today’s Scotland, Crete and most impressively Pakistan.

The toilet has shaped the path of humanity throughout history and continues to do so. Many, many people around the world are in desperate need of one. And we are all in need of new ones. So next time you take a leak and are about to flush, maybe, just maybe, pause for a moment and reflect on what a monumental act of human ingenuity, enterprise and grandeur you're about to perform. But don’t pause for too long, that would be weird. And don’t forget to wash your hands!

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#Toilets #History #Environment