– The tourists use my garden as a toilet. They both poop and pee, said a despairing Kai Odd Lorenzen in Flakstad to NRK:’s reporter this summer.
In addition to the permanent residents’ discomfort, the faeces also pose health risks, states Ole-Jakob Kvalshaug, head of Lofotodden National Park.
Getting sick from the water
– We have had to put up signs warning people not to drink from the streams in Kvalvika. People can get sick from drinking the water, he says to NRK.
Building toilets in a national park is not possible. Besides the encroachment on nature, it would be complicated to maintain them. But now an American researcher, living in Norway, has found a solution: Poop bags that are then thrown into a waste container.
Understand thought patterns
Rose Keller has researched visitor management in Denali National Park in Alaska. The trial on Lofoten will last for four weeks from July 7. There will be a box of free bags and signs with information on where to throw them.
– The poo bags are more hygienic than nappies. Bacteria cannot get lost, the bag has an odor lock and 80 percent is biodegradable, says Rose Keller, who is currently affiliated with the Norwegian Institute for Natural Research, to NRK.
Want to test the bags Swedish side
Even on the Swedish side of Sápmi, there have been problems with poo, especially during the pandemic. But the Swedish Tourist Association’s mountain manager Maria Persson does not feel that the problem with poo is as big anymore.
– It occurs but is not such a big problem. Above all, there is a problem with toilet paper and paper handkerchiefs that remain and are visible in nature, she tells SVT Sápmi.
Maria Persson is open to testing poo bags in Sweden as well.
– It will be interesting what you come up with in Lofoten.
What do you do yourself when you need to go to the toilet in the mountains?
– I dig a small hole, do what I need to and dig again…