a couple of stories of human hygiene on the JMT

I recently got back from hiking the JMT and I have two incidents to relate.
1) While camping near Center Basin in a tremendously lovely spot, I was rather shocked to find a semi-buried diaper wrap with a disposable diaper inside of it. Now granted, it probably would've decomposed naturally within, say, 1000 years or so, but I felt morally compelled to not leave it, so I packed it up in a ziplock and carried it out to Whitney Portal, 31 miles away. Perhaps I am the first person in history to have carried a dirty diaper that he had no personal connection with, to the highest point in the lower 48 states.
However my real concern is this: Center Basin is 2 or 3 days travel from the nearest trailhead, perhaps longer if you are toting a child. Does this mean there are dirty diapers dumped all up and down Bubb's Creek? Ugh!

Story #2 of human hygiene: While camped at Tyndall Frog Pond, a lovely spot, I moseyed over to my favorite little watering hole on the creek to get some good clean Sierra water and came upon a guy sqatting right next to it, pants to his ankles, butt pointed at me. My reaction was immediate: I told him in no uncertain terms not to do his business right next to the creek, to go up the hill away from water. I was pretty distressed, but I would say that, judging by the look of horror on his face, he was equally distressed by me. He replied to me (and I quote): "Wash-wash!". I believe English was not his native tongue.
Now I do not wish to criticize him for being a foreigner. Plenty of Americans out there do some pretty crummy things on the trails (see above story #1). Nor do I wish to be judgemental of his command of the english language: lord only knows that I have said some equally awkward things while traveling in foreign countries. Furthermore, I have to admit that when I take a little swim or soak in a mountain stream or lake, I am of course hoping that some of the unsavory things on my body will "wash-wash" away.Maybe I was hard on the guy, but seeing a bare butt squatting right next to your drinking water will cloud one's reaction.
Nevertheless,I gotta say, he was the subject of a lot of laughter between my partner and I. Lots of "wash-wash" jokes. We would run into him and she would say "is that him?" and I would honestly reply "well, I'm not sure. It's hard to say with his pants up"

Laughter is good for keeping from crying. Confess I'm reflexively drawn to less-well used trails because I'm easily distressed by some of what's found on and near the popular ones. But of course in the case of the JMT, that means skipping some spectacular territory.

Wash-wash!

As a sort of incidental observation, I would say there were a lot of foreign tourists doing the JMT. I don't know if this is something new, but it was quite a contrast from all the other places I go backpacking. I guess all these "Best of" lists placing it up there with Annapurna, etc has put it on the bucket list of people who otherwise might not come here.
Actually, it was kind of fun meeting people from all over (including elsewhere in the US), but I also suspect a lot of these people (including Americans) are probably inexperienced backpackers without a well-informed knowledge of backcountry practices. I have done several of the well-known backpacking trips in South America, and there is the major problem of having inexperienced people from all over the world coming to do their first backpacking trips and doing some really piggy things, showing no respect for nature. Fortunately, it is nowhere nearly as bad here, probably because our Park Service does a better job of educating newby backpackers. But I wish the responsible agencies would oversee the JMT a little better. I was horribly appalled to see a group of young male (US) bozos camping on a fragile meadow at Guitar Lake (elevation 11,500') I can easily see how the JMT corridor could become a sort of national sacrifice zone

One of the places I hike is near the first public campgrounds in the USFS system. For "sanitation" they put the outhouses within about 20 feet of the stream. Now all that's left is collapsed holes full of historic treasures.

Your second story reminds me of a time we were set up for a nice like near Smedberg Lake in Yosemite---about 25 miles from the nearest trailhead.

A group of horseback riders had arrived at the lake, and as watched they dismounted, and started setting up for their own lunch. One woman walked along the lake until she was right in front the trees that were shading and us and started to undo her pants.

I cleared my throat, and she jumped, spotted us, and quickly walked the other way.

I should have done what you did, and told her to go farther from the lake...but she may not have needed to go at all anymore, after that little scare.