Reinventing the toilet

MANILA, Philippines – Take something most people in the developed world take for granted and make it better. This is the challenge of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And they want to start with the toilet. 

The foundation launched on October 2, the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge – India, aimed at addressing the alarming lack of access to sanitation in the world’s second most populated country

The project aims to develop an affordable and self-contanted “next generation toilet” that attacks all pathogens and is something people will like to use.

Poor access to sanitation

Of a total population of around 1.27 billion people in India, around 48% or 615 million still do not have access to sanitary toilets. Many of India’s poor are vulnerable to diseases and health problems as a result of poor sanitation.

UNICEF recently reported that 62 million children under the age of 5 will never reach their full physical and mental potential and that this might be attributed to the country’s poor sanitation.

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, in partnership with The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Government of India hope to address this disparity through the Toilet Challenge. 

Silver lining

Fortunately, whatever India lacks in sanitation, they make up for it with their manufacturing competitiveness. Deloitte, a large professional service firm, ranked India fourth for global manufacturing competitiveness.

Ajay Shankar, a member of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council also said that India has the “capacity to emerge as the second best destination for manufacturing in the world.”

The Foundation hopes to tap the manufacturing expertise and low labor costs to produce a revolutionary toilet for the developing world. 

“This is why we are investing in opportunities that extend affordable sanitation services to poor communities through innovations in business models, government policies and technologies,” said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in a statement. – with a report by Raisa Serafica/Rappler.com