Misguided debate continues to shape sanitation crisis

A study is now circulating about how more people in India have access to cell phones than latrines. This lit up the blogosphere and Twitter – sector professionals and advocates are both dumbfounded and outraged that something so central to health and development as a toilet is being numerically lapped by something so trivial/consumerist as a cell phone. This affront has led to yet further calls for "action": more money for toilets and greater commitments to sanitation provision from aid agencies, governments, and NGOs who too often prioritize water over sanitation.

Let’s step back for one moment. It’s certainly a disaster that sanitation coverage still lags so far behind almost everything else in the development sector. But are we really surprised by this situation in India? Cell phones are pretty cool; there are a plethora of cell phone options and a wide variety of cell phone providers, with varying payment plans to meet a wide variety of people’s needs. Cell phones are functional and allow people to stay in touch with family, friends, and business associates. Cell phones are proving to be critical instruments to transfer money in places like Kenya, and to keep track of bank balances in many developing countries. They are fashion statements, status symbols and a source of prestige and pride. Extremely poor people have a cell phone for good reason – it has become a key part of some people’s efforts to escape poverty – something I have witnessed with surprise in places like rural Mozambique (where I am pretty sure cell phones also far outstrip latrines if anyone bothered to do the research).

In fact, cell phones are almost everything a toilet is not.

Sanitation activists can of course scream and yell about this all they want, but perhaps a better strategy that would actually help people without improved sanitation is to try and learn something from cell phones. Perhaps we can learn something that may begin to meaningfully spread sanitation, even without some "master plan" or vague "call to action"

Cell phone providers absolutely understand that a wide variety of choices matter. One person may want an iPhone, another may want a Droid. There are cell phones that are so basic that many of us laugh at their simplicity, and others so advanced that I can't turn them on. This diversity of technology options – and the diversity of messages surrounding each option – comes from a real effort by cell phone providers to understand their market. Providers understand that one option does not fit every customer, and that they need to make at least one set of options incredibly cheap while maintaining that phone’s allure and functionality if they want to link poorer people into their service networks.