This Ad Is Printed with Human Faeces Ink

‘Reading this should make you sick’ – this is the message that greeted people in South Africa as they opened the Sunday papers in recent weeks. The bold warning is the headline of a provocative newspaper ad by Amnesty International South Africa in partnership with Joe Public, as part of a campaign petitioning government to eradicate pit toilets in schools by the end of 2024. 

The ad goes on to explain that it is ‘printed with ink made of human faeces from illegal plain pit toilets still in use at over 3,900 South African schools’. Fortunately for readers, it says, ‘the toxic faecal matter that you are in direct contact with now has been sterilised to kill the pathogens breeding in it’.

But perhaps the only thing more sickening than the ad itself, is the truth it uncovers – in that over a million schoolchildren are still exposed to daily physical and health risks due to pit toilets that should have been eradicated in schools, years ago.

Plain pit toilets were banned from South African schools by the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure (the school infrastructure regulations) in 2013 and had to be removed by 2016.

But more than 10 years after these regulations were passed, all of the initial sanitation delivery due dates (2016 and 2020), plus new deadlines, including ones set for the end of February 2023, have been missed as a result of repeatedly being shifted by the Department of Basic Education (DBE).

The DBE now plans to eradicate these pit toilets by 2025. However, Amnesty International South Africa is urging the government to stop pushing forward the date and eradicate these illegal pit toilets by the end of 2024.

"Drastic action is needed, and so we have created this ad in order to shock South Africans into awareness so that they cannot look away. These illegal pit toilets continue to violate the right to sanitation which is enshrined in the Constitution, but also the right to health, education, dignity and because of the potential dangerous nature of these toilets, the right to life," says Amnesty International South Africa’s executive director, Shenilla Mohamed. 

Sadly, in April 2024, yet another child, three-year-old Unecebo Mboteni, drowned in a pit toilet.

Xolisa Dyeshana, Joe Public’s chief creative officer, says, "Our work with Amnesty International South Africa, as always, is the result of a shared passion to create positive change in our country. In this instance, we want to urge our newly formed government to reprioritise this issue and ensure everyone has access to their basic human rights."

The idea behind the newspaper ad necessitated a ground breaking new printing medium – leading to the creation of the world’s first printing ink made with human faeces.

Xolisa, explains, ‘To make the ink, we partnered with scientists, innovating a new chemical process – heat-treating, sterilising and dehydrating the faeces to create a fine powder used to develop this unthinkable printing medium.’

In the meantime, the advert design template was created in a strictly controlled environment, photographed, and ultimately printed using the faeces ink, ready to be inserted into newspapers, and concluding with a call for readers to scan a QR code to sign the petition (found here).

In this way, Amnesty International South Africa aims to keep the government accountable for eradicating all school pit toilets by the end of the year  – spurred on by the ad exposing the country to faeces from pit toilets so that by 2025, no child will be exposed to it at schools, ever again.