Metro Classifieds View all

Reinventing the world's sanitation

When it comes to the toilet, we in the developed world might think that we have it all sorted. You simply walk into the water closet, do your business and then flush. This might sound like the beginning of a very awkward conversation, but the fact is that the convenience afforded by developed countries is unconventional in third-world ones, where traditional flush toilets are hugely impractical, largely because they waste tons of water that could instead be used for drinking.

Despite the absence of flush toilets, however, there are hardly any alternatives, meaning that most developing areas have little access to basic sanitation. The United Nations estimates that unsafe sanitation accounts for about half of all hospitalisations in the developing world, and that about 1.5 million children die every year from diseases such as diarrhoea.

Clearly, then, something must be done, and this was exactly the thinking behind the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s recent Reinvent the Toilet Fair, which was held at the charity's campus in Seattle, USA. The idea was to offer a platform on which scientists could serve up new toilets that can improve sanitation. The project challenged inventors to come up with a toilet that worked without power, water or a septic system, and the charitable organisation, headed up by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, has dedicated $370 million to fund winning entries.

Apart from a shed-load of money, Gates has thrown plenty of verbal support behind the project, tweeting incessantly about it over the past few weeks. "The modern toilet was invented in 1775 and we promptly stopped innovating; until today," he recently posted. "It's time to reinvent the toilet so that we can meet the needs of the 2.5 billion who don't have access to one."

Gates' calls were answered in earnest come the day of the Reinvent the Toilet Fair, with 28 designs being shown off over the course of the event. The winning toilet came from a team headed up by Professor Michael Hoffman at the California Institute of Technology. It was a self-contained, solar-powered toilet featuring a solar panel that produces enough energy for an electrochemical reactor designed to break down water and human waste into hydrogen gas. The gas can then be stored for use in hydrogen fuel cells to provide a back-up energy source for when there's not enough light for the toilet to operate, meaning it's functional all the time.

The design was no doubt worthy of the $100,000 top prize, though it was hardly the only impressive toilet at the fair. Among others was an entry from the UK's Loughborough University, which offered a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals and clean water. The idea is that the system will get its power from the charcoal that it produces, while also separating clean water from human waste. The design was awarded second place.

In third place was an equally inventive design, which came from the University of Toronto in Canada. This entry came in the form of a toilet that sanitises feces and urine in order to recover resources and energy through low-temperature, flameless combustion. It should mean that feces can be sanitised within 24 hours, while urine is passed through a sand filter and disinfected with ultra-violet light.

Of course, other designs were less practical, though each one showed that there are scientists willing to step up and help third-world countries with their sanitation problems. At the event, Gates said, "We couldn't be happier with the response that we've gotten."

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hopes to be field testing prototypes over the course of the next three years, allocating money out of the dedicated fund as it's needed. Should any of the designs work, they may give people in developed countries a little to think about whenever they next visit the toilet. With the foundation's help, it could be the developed world that is lagging behind in toilet technology.

Comments

• Review
  • Metro Life |
  • Misc. |
  • Facebook chatter |
• People
  • Profile |
• The City
  • Dining |
  • Nightlife, the arts and music |
  • Listings |
  • Community |
• Life
  • Travel |
  • Home |
  • Gadgets, cars and tech |
• You
  • Fashion |
  • Health and Fitness |
  • Sport |
  • Well-being |
• News
  • Local News |
  • RTA News |