Thursday 23 June 2022

Glasto mud toilet sculpture wants a climate chat

Glasto mud toilet sculpture wants a climate chat

Glastonbury Festival kicked off yesterday with performances from huge names including Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher and Kendrick Lamar – but they’re not the only ones attracting attention.

A sculpture depicting a man on the toilet can be found next to four eco-friendly loos to raise awareness for the waste produced at festivals and the best way to stop it.

The 2.5-metre model has been made using Glastonbury’s own mud, mixed with compost produced by the toilets at previous festivals and sand from Somerset.

Labelled ‘The Big Bog’ by its creator Sand In Your Eye and presented by WaterAid, the sculpture reportedly took 40 hours to make.

[caption id="attachment_237735" align="alignnone" width="720"] Image: WaterAid / Ben Roberts[/caption]

It has been built to be intentionally easy to damage – by being washed away by rain or cracking if temperatures reach high levels. This was done to show how climate change is impacting the Earth and taking away the things we enjoy.

The decision to place the model next to four other toilets was symbolic of the fact that one-in-five people globally do not have access to a decent standard of sanitation.

Tim Lloyd, a volunteer at WaterAid, was chosen to be the model of the sculpture, reading Glastonbury’s Free Press newspaper.

He said: “I’ll be spreading the message that we can all help make a difference to communities living on the front line of climate change.

“It’s shocking to think one-in-five people across the world don’t have access to a decent toilet while one-in-10 have no clean water and climate change is making life even harder for those living in poverty.”

Tim Wainwright, WaterAid Chief Executive, added: “Whilst this sculpture is a bit of fun, it relays an important message – the climate crisis is a water crisis and it is threatening millions of people’s access to clean water and sanitation facilities.

“To ensure the world’s most vulnerable people have the tools to face all types of climate impacts from deadly heatwaves to devastating floods, we are calling on the UK government to lead the way in putting access to reliable clean water and sanitation at the forefront of the climate change agenda.”

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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