In a rare recognition, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has acknowledged the role of low-cost, green toilet technology developed by Indian NGO Sulabh International in achieving United Nation's Millennium Development Goals. ASCE has said that Sulabh's indigenous technology will not only help in tackling the issue of global warming but also improve community health, hygiene and environment in the developing world.
According to Sulabh's founder Bindeshwar Pathak, who visited the US recently to attend the World Environment and Water Resources Congress organised by ASCE, it said developed as well as developing nations have shown keen interest in their toilet technology that could prove helpful in meeting the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation of providing toilets to half of the 260-crore people who are without toilets by 2015, and to all by 2025. Its green toilet technology was also beneficial for developed nations to help reduce global warming by saving enormous quantity of water that is required for flushing, besides providing bio-fertiliser for agricultural use, he said.
Stating that Sulabh's cost-effective two-pit toilet technology can also be used in producing biogas, while recycling and reuse of human excreta for biogas generation and fertiliser was an important way to get rid of health hazards, Mr. Pathak said his NGO would soon launch a sanitation campaign in 50 countries.
