I’m pretty sure that all you know about high-tech toilets in Japan which are a real miracle of technology with a bunch of built-in sensors, heated seats, and maybe soon, artificial intelligence. It is really great but you also should know about existence of not so beautiful, but much more important decisions which save people’s lives every day.
From insanitary conditions in the poorest parts of the world, hundreds of thousands of children die every year, millions are ill. And there is no chance to build modern sewage systems there in the foreseeable future.
American billionaire Bill Gates proposed a unique sewage treatment technology using a special type of worms, which solved the problem with cesspools and dysentery in India.
For over a year the team of biologists and engineers, inspired and funded by Bill Gates, have been developing and testing toilets in which manure worms process human waste into water, carbon dioxide and a small residue of fertilizer. Some samples have been operating for five years and do not yet require maintenance. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested millions in the development and manufacture of these facilities and it was recently announced that another $ 200 million will be spent on deploying a network of such toilets in India and other countries.
The invention called “Tiger toilet” from the outside looks like any other pit latrine. But it doesn’t smell like one. Instead, it comes with a built-in population of tiger worms which recycle our waste to survive. According to experiments, in such toilets worms process not only feces, but also 99% of pathogens, leaving no more than 15% of those obtained in the form of compost materials. The rest becomes water and carbon dioxide. Also, as a result of the work of the worms, the system has practically no unpleasant odor, and it does not attract various insects.
I clearly understand that maybe it is not so very pleasurable to talk about toilets and faeces but honesty speaking, this charity activity impresses me as much as the creation of Microsoft.
Sources:
https://www.sciencealert.com/toilets-powered-only-by-worms-are-being-set-up-all-over-india
https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-foundation-helps-invent-tiger-toilets-powered-by-worms-2019-1?IR=T
https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/swachh-bharat-abhiyan-bill-gates-and-tiger-toilets-are-betting-on-worms-to-tackle-indias-sanitation-crisis-2002745.html
https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/15/story-bill-gates-worm-powered-toilet-change-world-8346168/