When the pandemic first cast its shadow over the world, a peculiar madness gripped the West. Millions of Westerners frantically bought toilet rolls. For all of us from the East, the scramble for tissue paper and the sight of their empty shelves in supermarkets was baffling. We simply could not comprehend the urgency to stack paper rolls, but then, tissues are something Westerners cannot do without. Their loos are water-less. No rinsing, no washing, they must clean their bottoms with toilet paper after doing the business.
‘East is east and West is west’, said Kipling. Nowhere is this divide more apparent than in the sanctuary of the lavatory while practicing everyday personal hygiene. Whereas the West uses toilet paper, the East uses water; one wipes, the other washes. When it comes to ‘behind’, people in the East feel, quite smugly that the ‘most advanced’, countries are actually far behind us.
However, moral superiority puts you in an awkward situation when you land on Western soil. The ‘loo woes’ begin at the airport itself. You enter the toilet cubicle only to find a dry, desert-like landscape– no water, only tissue rolls. They say, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, but when the Romans don’t provide a faucet, you are forced to smuggle bottles of mineral water in the cubicle.
The trouble doesn’t end at the terminal; it follows you home. I remember the first time we visited our son in Australia he was staying in a rented accommodation. The flat had a standard Western toilet with no bidet, water jet or hand held spray that we are accustomed to using for decades now in India. For us not just the traditional Brass lota (water vessel), but even the plastic mug has become a relic of a distant past. However in the absence of a faucet, we decided to make do with a mug. Then began a frantic search for a humble plastic mug, but a thing so ubiquitous in India was conspicuously absent in the West. Ultimately, we had to resort to some classic Indian jugaad: an improvised vessel created by decapitating a plastic soda bottle.
Keeping aside the personal preferences, there is a strong case for ‘wet’ way from environment angle. As it turns out, the ‘dry’ way is actually much wetter and dirtier for the planet. Water-loo is actually the greener choice using far less water as compared to gallons of water used in making tissue paper. Not only is the toilet paper industry a water guzzler, but also a forest-gobbler, sacrificing millions of trees for the wood pulp.
‘Old habits die hard.’ Whatever may be the arguments in favour of ‘wet’ way, the ‘wash-wipe’ divide is not likely be wiped out soon. So long as Western lavatories remain resolutely dry, water-less loos will remain a personal Waterloo for any visitor from the East.
(Published in The tribune on World Environment Day, June 5, 2026)
