human waste Maintenance & works
Orders 0/10 Depth 0.0 m Rev B

Work order · the descent

WO-2604-00

Ten orders through the system that starts when you press the button. Read them in any order. The register remembers where you have been.

Orders
10
Depth
−16.2 m
Read
40 min
Tracking
None

Section A–A · the sanitation chain

Where does it go?

You press the button. The water turns, the bowl clears, and the waste leaves your life. This is the part after that.

Start at order 01

10 orders 40 min No tracking

Plate 01A
An isometric house on a ground block. A pipe from its toilet goes through the soil and bends into a large question mark with a green dot.
Each flush starts a trip that most people never see. AI-generated illustration
10work orders in the register
16.2 millustrative depth, flush to field
0trackers, accounts or cookies

The register of orders

Ten stops on one chain. Open them in any order — the boxes fill in as you do, and stay filled on this device.

ST-01 Question You flush, the bowl clears, and the waste keeps travelling without you. −0.9 m ST-02 Statistic In 2024, 3.4 billion people did not have safely managed sanitation. −2.4 m ST-03 Shock In 2024, 354 million people had no toilet, and the walk outdoors began before light. −3.8 m ST-04 Myth-breaker A toilet is not the system. Most of what makes waste safe sits under the street. −5.6 m ST-05 Participation Every hand goes up for the first question. Almost none stay up for the second. −7.2 m ST-06 Story A child fills a cup from the river. Upstream, a village uses the same water as a toilet. −8.9 m ST-07 History In 1858, the smell of the River Thames forced Parliament to build sewers London still uses. −10.4 m ST-08 Reframe The solids that settle out of sewage can be digested into gas, power and fertiliser. −12.1 m ST-09 Hope Between 2015 and 2024, about 365,000 people a day gained safely managed sanitation. −14.0 m ST-10 One line When heavy rain fills the sewer, the street gets back what you flushed. −16.2 m

0 / 10 orders closed

Start at order 01

The chain, in six handoffs

Every handoff can break on its own.

H-01Flushthe last second you see
H-02House drain110 mm, inside the wall
H-03Street sewershared, gravity-fed
H-04Mainthe trunk line
H-05Treatmentwater and sludge split
H-06Riverthe water returns

354,000,000people have no toilet at all, private or shared

560,000,000share a toilet with another household

1,700,000,000drink water carrying faecal contamination

365,000 a daygained safe sanitation, 2015–2024

Statement of figures

2024 estimates

0 people without safely managed sanitation Station 02 · Statistic
0 people with no private or shared toilet Station 03 · Shock
0 deaths each year from unsafe sanitation Station 03 · Shock
0 people who gained safe sanitation between 2015 and 2024 Station 09 · Hope
From the companion briefing · full citations pending Measured in households, not toilets

Site check · one question

Raise your hand if you used a toilet today.

Almost every hand goes up. Then the second question arrives, and almost every hand comes down. That gap is the whole subject.

Site check · no tracking

One answer is enough. Tick the box to set your morning next to the figures.

Site survey · three questions

Find your station

Three questions. We will put you at the order you are already standing in. Nothing is stored and nothing is scored against you.

Question 1 of 3 Unscored

Where are you reading this?

Assigned order

ST-01 · Question

Open the order

End of the descent

The chain ends in a river, or in a street.

Which one depends on the links between the toilet and the treatment plant. Those links are pipes, trucks, sensors, and people who empty what other people leave behind.

Ten orders describe those links. None of them is a reason to look away from the next flush.

Register status

0 of 10 orders closed Open every order in the register to close the descent.

Start the descent