Hi Birger,

This is a powerful reminder that schistosomiasis is not just a medical condition, it’s a sanitation failure playing out in slow motion. Wherever urine and poop reach open water, the parasite thrives, and no amount of treatment can keep up with reinfection. In some African hotspots, studies show reinfection can return within 6–12 months even after high drug coverage.

That’s why CBS deserves serious attention in schisto-endemic areas. It’s one of the few sanitation solutions that gives full containment, no groundwater leakage, and zero discharge into rivers and lakes, exactly the break in the transmission cycle that conventional pit latrines often fail to provide, especially near water bodies.

The opportunity now is coordination. If NTD programmes, WASH actors, and local authorities align around high-risk zones fishing communities, irrigation schemes, peri-urban settlements CBS could become a frontline tool in reducing environmental contamination and protecting people from lifelong reproductive harm.

Thanks for opening this important discussion. It would be very interesting to hear from colleagues who have tried CBS or similar contained systems in schisto hotspots what worked, and what still needs testing?
Regards,

Benny

Pee or poop in the water, schisto waits for you. (Bilharzia): When Sex Becomes a Fire from Hell

Imagine sex feeling like fire from hell.  For millions living with schistosomiasis (bilharzia), intimacy means pain, bleeding, and sometimes infertility. This parasite doesn't just kill, it steals dignity in silence and it thrives wherever sanitation fails.

Schisto is not just another worm. It is a parasite that swims through your skin when you enter contaminated water. Once inside, it lodges in blood vessels around the bladder and reproductive organs.

For millions, that means more than bloody urine or chronic pain. Schisto (bilharzia) turns sex itself into torment. Women are left with lesions and bleeding in their reproductive tract. Men suffer genital damage and pain. Fertility collapses. What should be the most human act of intimacy becomes a fire from hell.

Globally, over 250 million people live with schisto. Around 200,000 die every year, but millions more live with the silent destruction of their sexual and reproductive health. Schisto is the second deadliest parasitic disease after malaria. Almost nobody talks about it.

Never heard about it? That is why it is called a Neglected Tropical Disease. Pills exist, but reinfection follows as long as urine and feces reach rivers and lakes. Safe toilets + safe treatment stop the cycle at its root. That is why we built the Loo-Topia model. Modern Container Based Sanitation (CBS) that cuts schisto where it starts.

Sanitation is not just about toilets. It is about love, dignity, and futures that parasites should never be allowed to steal.

This is the Fast Track to SDG 6.2. It is time to build it. Together. Spread the word so we move from neglected to sorted out.

Birger "Burger" Lundgren - Sanitation Ambassadors NPC CEO & Founder & Knight of the pile



Warmest regards,
Birger Lundgren