Inspiring Women February 2023

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Inspiring Reads:
Pipe Dreams
The Urgent Global Quest
to Transform the Toilet
Chelsea Wald has
repeatedly plunged into
the topic of toilets since
2013, when editors first
approached her to write
about the latent potential
in our stagnating
infrastructure. Since then
she has traveled to Italy,
South Africa, Indonesia,
and Haiti, as well as
throughout the Netherlands
and the United States, in
search of the past and
future of toilet systems. With
a degree in astronomy from
Columbia University and a
master’s in journalism from
Indiana University, Chelsea
has more than fifteen years
of experience in writing
about science and the
environment. She lives with
her family in The Hague,
Netherlands where she is a
member of AWC The Hague.
Most of us do not give much thought to
the centerpiece of our bathrooms, but the
toilet is an unexpected paradox. On the
one hand, it is a modern miracle: a
ubiquitous fixture in a vast sanitation system that
has helped add decades to the human life span by
reducing disease. On the other hand, the toilet is
also a tragic failure: less than half of the world’s
population can access a toilet that safely manages
body waste. And it is inefficient, squandering clean
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