Human waste attracts less funding than other development projects but ‘Reinvent the Toilet’ challenge recognises that better hygiene can cut health-care costs and prevent early deaths
A solar powered toilet that breaks down water and human waste into hydrogen gas for use in fuel cells has won first prize in a competition for next-generation toilets to improve sanitation in the developing world.
The California Institute of Technology in the United States received the $100,000 first prize for its design. Loughborough University in the United Kingdom took the $60,000 second prize for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals and clean water, and Canada’s University of Toronto came third, winning $40,000 for a toilet that sanitises faeces and urine, and recovers resources and clean water.
The winners took part in a “Reinvent the Toilet” challenge set by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which asked designers to break with a sanitation model that has changed little since it was developed by Alexander Cummings more than 200 years ago. It is a model that depends on piped water, sewer or electrical connections that poor countries can ill afford.
A year ago, the Gates Foundation issued a challenge to universities to design toilets that can capture and process waste without piped waster and transform human waste into useful resources such as energy and water.
Millennium goals
“Imagine what’s possible if we continue to collaborate, stimulate new investment in this sector, and apply our ingenuity in the years ahead,” said Bill Gates as he announced the winners on Tuesday, August 14, in Seattle, Washington state. “Many of these innovations will not only revolutionise sanitation in the developing world, but also help transform our dependence on traditional flush toilets in wealthy nations.” Sanitation and hygiene are the laggards in the millennium development goals (MDGs) of reducing extreme poverty. Basic sanitation, covering toilets, latrines, handwashing and waste, is not an MDG but a target under MDG seven on ensuring environmental sustainability.
Sanitation and hygiene have been the poor cousins in the global water, sanitation and hygiene work and programmes, outfunded by as much as 13 to one, even though most water-related diseases are really sanitation-related diseases.
In March, the U.N. announced that the world had reached the goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water, well ahead of the 2015 deadline. However, the world is still far from meeting the MDG target for sanitation, and is unlikely to do so by 2015.
Only 63 per cent of the world population has access to improved sanitation, a figure projected to increase to only 67 per cent by 2015, well below the 75 per cent target in the MDGs. Currently 2.5 billion people lack access to an “improved sanitation facility”, which hygienically separates human waste from human contact.
Not high-profile
As Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary General, has acknowledged, sanitation is a sensitive and unpopular subject. It is not a high-profile issue, although the UN declared access to water and sanitation a fundamental right in 2010 and there is a U.N. rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation.
At the current rate, the world will miss the sanitation MDG target by 13 percentage points, meaning there will be 2.6 billion people without access to improved sanitation, according to the 2010 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef joint monitoring programme for water supply and sanitation. . If things carry on as they are, the MDG target will not be met until 2049.
As many as 1.2 billion people practice what the U.N. describes as “open defecation.” They go to the toilet behind bushes, in fields, in plastic bags or along railway tracks. The practice poses particular problems for women and girls, who can be subject to physical and verbal abuse or humiliation.
According to the WHO, improved sanitation delivers up to $9 in social and economic benefits for every $1 invested because it increases productivity, reduces healthcare costs, and prevents illness, disability, and early death. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2012
Keywords: Reinvent the Toilet, human waste, sanitation campaign, millennium development goals, World Health Organisation
Either we must stick to our traditional ways like using open land for quitting human waste, maintaining lakes so that waste is recycled by nature itself, or we must follow these types of inventions for the same. Hats-off to the article. Many thanks.
Toilet is the seat of civilization!! whats development without it ?!!
well done ,Bill Gates! will he take this novel idea of toilets to the
world like he did with his 'WINDOWS" . Indian must carefully study this
project and go for a joint venture with Gates to built 'solar toilet"
I think we should appreciate and should also find some innovative
solution for poor sanitation in India. Apart from government agencies,
advertisements and govt. funding, this kind of innovative solution
should be demonstrated in India also.
Such type of new inventions should be made throughout the world. In the coming years, good air won't be available except in a few places in the world. Water is polluting, Air is polluting, the common needs such as gas, electricity, petroleum products will become scarce in the coming years. Every country should concentrate on these items and we have to improve more methods by inventing new systems. We are completely neglecting solar energy. If new inventions are made to utilise the solar energy, we can do wonders.
The article in itself is a useful one and helps us know about efforts by some people to solve a basic problem - in the western world in this instance.
But the response of the readers (three of the four letters I see now) are taking a moral high ground and starting to attack the Indians, the Indian govt. and Indian institutions. The reality is that there are many commendable efforts across the country on this issue. For example, at IIT Kanpur, Prof. Vinod Tare and his students have come up with alternate toilets that use very little water and more eco-friendly (much more than what has been popularised by the Western civilisation). Some of these are being tried out within the IIT campus itself and also in some places in UP.
Also, India is home to Mr. Bindeshwar Pathak whose phenomenal work affecting millions of people is well known.
So, instead of spewing venom and criticising one's own, please get off the moral high horse and DO something. Or else, just keep shut.
We should make western countries a model in their efforts and innovation in ever neglected toilet technologies.Even in India a country where more than 30% resort to open defecation,bringing a shame to the country,no one is bothered about bringing a change in the scenario.Faeces,on the railway lines and along road side adds to the grim picture of poor India amidst of all the so called developments.So what is the solution?I think the government should ensure that all families should have toilet facilities by allocating funds for it rather than giving Tvs and mobile phones to poeple.
In Tamilnadu the politicians are making money from the "peeing and
shitting" by common people. The govt announces Pay&Use lavatory
(public convenience) at some place -for example a bus stand. The
politicians take up the lease for construction and maintenance of such
places, sign in the tender documents about the rates agreed for
urinating and defecating. They allow the users to go inside charging
from them three to four times more than the agreed rates with the
govt. If the construction is made in such a way that passage, to
urinals and bowel movement, is separate, they can allow the users of
urinals freely and the lavatories can be charged. No, it will not be !
wherever there is a way to make money, utilize it. The govt officials
and the politicians collude with each other to make money in this
"toilet racket"
While this is indeed a good news for India, another issue I would like to highlight is poor state of public urinals. We have not been able to design proper public urinals (at Bus Stations and Railway station etc) which are filthy, stinking and where droplets throw back on the legs or trousers. I trust instead of California Institute, this time it would be some Indian institute which can design a clean, healthy urinals for men and women. This would be another great service to the public hygeine and cleanliness.
Almost everyday it comes to my mind that there is lot of scope of improvement and inventions in improving sanitation and managing human waste. It's commendable that visionaries have looked in this direction. More projects and competitions like this will further help in finding ideas which will be cheaper and easily implementable.
Such a commendable invention which is required for one of biggest challenges faced by countries in reducing open defecation issues.Great job CIT and Of Course Bill Gates for such a great idea and funding the competition.
We should learn something from them, as even though being from developed countries( having no problems in this area in their country), they are helping the world with their innovative ideas.They are the one who have a vision for this world.
If India can learn at least 5-10% of this, we can also be a big contributor in making the world a better place to live.
We are just snobs, who endlessly 'brag' about our 'past', 'history',
'culture', etc, all along looking down on others, especially the
west, while we have hardly anything worthwhile to boast of!! Until we
shed our air of superiority and wake up from this false sense of
being a 'super power' and look at the nation and the world, where
lots of forces are competing to develop and better human life, we
would never ever be a nation to reckon with, in spite of the
population!!
I think we should also learn to simply appreciate and refrain from comparing every single thing with our government and finding fault. There are numerous other inventions here in India that others have not thought of.
We have started & practicing lot of nonsense in the name of westen culture which is of no use to us and to our culture rather than disguising ourself . I dont know why some good practice like the one discussed above is getting hidden from our eyes .Let altleast this one good thing, we should follow to improve ourself in sanitation.
Thanks Western guys !! for inventing such a great idea .
California Institute of Technology is located in developed world but still contributed for the need of developing world. We, here in India have numerous educational institutions including IITs, which never attempted to provide solution to any such problem of the country. Our IITs and other universities are not the solution providing centres to our national problems.
We should be grateful to the like of honorable Mr Gates for funding such ideas. We have no hope of our governments being interested in such things, as they do not care even when farmers and people die. At least, someone is extending a helping hand. Hats off, Sir Gates.
Even now it is not too late for our IITs, CBRI and civil engineers and contractors to seriously ponder as to how to make a best toilet system from which we can recapture 95% of liquid & solid waste efficiently.
Hope this effort by Bill Gates will bring good sanitation to our poor people. Poor sanitation in India is more of our attitude problem. Humanity should commend the efforts put in by this visionary. I agree with J Mathew on our tendency to blame others for our mistakes. How come our universities did not hink this as a problem worth solving?
We are winning silver and bronze medals in the Sports but in the intellectual domain
India is coming up with nothing, thanks to the degradation of the India brain with
stupid fantasy, sleazy obsessed with sexy and violence movies and this government's
criminal activity of making true scientists commit suicide by forcing them to lie about
the realities of dangerous unwanted technologies banned in other countries but
dumped in India so that the foreign investors can recover their investments and these
politicians can have their commissions paid in foreign banks.
This is one of most awesome things which Bill Gates is doing. A true hero in every
sense! Watch and Learn, India!
Considering the fact that 40% or more of our total population indulges in open defecation, we should be the ones promoting such endeavours. But alas, our people, government, politicians or "millionaires" neither have the vision nor the will to scrouge up enough time or money for such things. Thank you Western world for coming up with the people and instituions to address this! We will blame you for our problems (economy, morals, etc), but thats only because we are trying to hide our inadequacies.
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