Wednesday, March 19, 2014: A first in the world, waterless toilet powered by solar energy is build to assist nearly 2.5 billion people in India, who do not have adequately safe and sustainable sanitation. The toilet is designed and built on an estimated budget of $7,77,000 and it will be unveiled this month
The sanitation concept is developed via grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is a self-contained unit and its technology converts human waste to biochar, which is a highly porous charcoal that increases crop yields and trap carbon dioxide. The toilet will provide an ‘eco-friendly solution’ to people.
The toilet project is part of the Gates Foundation’s “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge,” which aimed to develop next-generation toilet facilities. These can be used to disinfect liquid and solid waste, while generating useful end products. According to a TOI report, Karl Linden, the project’s principal investigator and professor at the University of Colorado said that
his team received a further $1 million dollars from the Gates Foundation for this project. Linden’s team is one of 16 groups in the world that are funded by the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” since 2011.
India will witness the first solar toilet concept, as all inventions from the 16 teams are landing in the national capital, New Delhi. The city will showcase them from 20 to 22 March for scientists, engineers and dignitaries.
Currently, this toilet can serve four to six people a day. Though, a bigger unit to assist more people is already under design, with an aim to meet a cost efficiency measure at five cents a day that is set by the Gates Foundation.”We are continuously looking for ways to improve efficiency and lower costs,” Linden said.
