I have a smart toilet at home. And if it isn't, at least it's very clever. When I step into the bathroom, the lid opens automatically, and LED lights softly illuminate the room. The seat heats up, and extractors inside the bowl filter out any unpleasant odors. When I'm finished, high-pressure water jets rinse me from the front and back. Finally, a hairdryer leaves me as good as new. When I get up, the tank drains, the lid lowers automatically, and the lights turn off. It's wonderful!
But every time I sit down and notice the hot lid, I can't help but think about a cruel reality:
- 500 million people defecate in the open.
- 3.6 billion people (almost half of humanity) use rudimentary toilets without any waste disposal system.
This causes intestinal diseases that kill nearly two million people each year. Of these, 700,000 are children who die from diarrhea caused by contaminated water. That's 700,000 children each year! More deaths than the number of deaths from AIDS and malaria combined.
And here in rich countries, we flush the toilet and take everything for granted: running water, sewage, electricity, wastewater treatment plants...
Health history of Canet de Mar
I lived my entire childhood without sewage. We used a communal apartment, and the feces ended up in a septic tank that emptied from time to time, fouling the entire neighborhood. Then came the sewers: two streams of filth that emptied directly into the sea.
We swam between the two streams. If we got too close to one, the water temperature and the occasional floating object reminded us that we were approaching a dangerous zone. Later, they installed a pipe that led out to sea. But storms often washed the debris back onto the beach.
Finally, a shared wastewater treatment plant was built with other neighboring towns, with which there are still some specific conflicts. "Why does the waste from your town go through mine, instead of going directly to the treatment plant?" If we still have logistical problems with sanitation in Maresme, imagine in places where there isn't even the most basic sanitation infrastructure!
Bill Gates' challenge
In the face of this health crisis (the global one, not the one in Canet), Bill Gates launched the Toilet Reinvention Fair with the goal of creating systems that would work without sewage, running water, or electricity, but would be safe, sustainable, and affordable.
The following projects received awards at the 2012 Seattle fair:
- California Institute of Technology: Solar toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity from human waste.
- Loughborough University: Toilet that produces biochar, minerals and clean water.
- University of Toronto: Toilet that sanitizes feces and urine, recovering resources and clean water.
In 2018 at the Reinvented Toilet Exhibition, In Beijing, some of these prototypes were already presented, ready to be manufactured and distributed.
Goals for the next decade. Will we meet them?
Point 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by United Nations member states, sets 2030 as the deadline for ensuring universal drinking water and sanitation. However, to achieve this goal, the current rate of sanitation would need to increase sixfold, that of drinking water fivefold, and that of basic hygiene threefold.
This means that the countries that approved these goals will have to roll up their sleeves and dedicate more investment, innovation, and political will to them. Because the toilet crisis isn't just a technical one: it's a matter of human rights, public health, and dignity.
The toilet may not be a glamorous topic, but it's a great place to start changing the world!
