Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and one of the world’s richest men, has been contemplating toilets! He has challenged scientists to develop waterless toilets for the 2.5bn people around the world without access to modern sanitation.
Some 1.5m youngsters die every year – mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia – because of sanitation problems.
Gates has announced £2.2m new funding for its ‘Reinvent the toilet challenge,’ with £64,000 going to the California Institute of Technology for its work on a sun-powered system that recycles water and breaks down human waste into storable energy.
He suggests: “The flush toilets we use in the wealthy world are irrelevant, impractical and impossible for 40% of the global population.
“Beyond a question of human dignity, this lack of access also endangers people’s lives, creates an economic and a health burden for poor communities, and hurts the environment.”
To solve the problem, his charitable foundation handed grants to eight universities around the world to develop a toilet that operates without running water, electricity or a septic system. It was also to be designed not to discharge pollutants but preferably to capture energy or other resources, and operate for just a few pennies a day!
Some of the prototypes have gone on display in the open courtyard of the foundation’s Seattle headquarters this week. They include the one produced by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which has an electrochemical reactor to transform the waste into a hydrogen gas.
Gates also sponsored Loughborough University for a toilet that transforms waste into biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water. Another project is from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It sends black soldier fly larvae into latrines and even home toilets to process waste, resulting in high quality, environmentally friendly animal feed.
More information: www.lshtm.ac.uk/