Reinventing the toilet to help the world's
poor
By Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, adapted by Newsela staff on 01.30.14
Word Count 960
Indian children returning from school walk back to their homes in Dharavi, Asia's largest slum, in Mumbai, India. Most
residents are squatting illegally and many have little access to basic sanitation. Photo: AP Photo/Gautam Singh, File
Joining with a group of doctoral students in California, bathroom fixtures maker Kohler is
lending help to an effort to reinvent the toilet.
This may prompt you to snicker. Don’t. It’s not funny, and the fact that nice people avoid
talking about human waste contributes to what is an enormous and deadly problem.
In India, for example, the United Nations estimates that more than 600 million people don’t
use toilets. They don’t use latrines — toilets built over holes in the ground — either. They
go right on the ground.
And that’s just one country. While significant improvement has occurred in the past 20
years, an estimated 1 billion people worldwide still go in the open. Another 700 million use
unhygienic facilities such as “hanging latrines” that dump directly into streams, or buckets
that may simply be emptied in the streets.
"Reinvent The Toilet Challenge"
All told, estimates of annual deaths from diarrhea, the majority of them caused by fecescontaminated water, range as high as 1.5 million. Most of the victims are under 5 years old.
“The statistics about the number of children that die every day from diarrhea-related
diseases are shocking,” said Robert Zimmerman, a Kohler engineer.
Can Kohler help? The company is better known for producing upscale faucets and sinks
— the firm’s marketing describes its dedication to “gracious living” — than for focusing on
basic sanitation for the world’s poor.
But Kohler also is among the world’s five largest manufacturers of plumbing products. And
when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, considered one of the country’s biggest and
most generous foundations, announced its “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” in 2011, Kohler
took notice.
It’s been a long time since the toilet changed much. The modern flush toilet works in
essentially the same way as the one invented in the late 1500s by Sir John Harington, an
English author who installed one of his toilets for Queen Elizabeth I at her palace in Surrey.
And with advances in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the flush toilet has worked
pretty well and has contributed greatly in reducing disease and prolonging life — when it’s
well-connected. But it’s not much help unless it feeds a system to treat the waste it swirls
away. In much of the world, that sort of infrastructure doesn’t exist.
“That’s very, very expensive,” said Doulaye Kone, an environmental engineer who grew up
in a village in Africa’s Ivory Coast and now works at the Gates Foundation. “It will work in
very few (developing world) cities.”
Caltech Wins The Challenge
So the foundation called for off-the-grid designs without connections to water, sewer or
electrical lines. It issued grants to eight universities, including one to a California Institute
of Technology (Caltech) team led by environmental science professor Michael Hoffmann.
The plan: Develop a self-contained toilet and waste treatment system powered by a solar
panel generating enough energy to store, so the toilet can be used at night when there's
no sun.
Kohler contacted Caltech and offered to supply fixtures for the first prototype model.
The Caltech toilet went on to win the Gates challenge in 2012. Hoffmann and his students
are preparing to fine-tune the prototype and get it ready for field testing in India, set to
begin later this year.
So Kohler offered to provide Caltech with more parts, along with design support to create a
toilet that is "culturally appropriate for the India market,” Zimmerman said.
And that may lead to new markets for Kohler to sell its products. The company at least is
interested in the possibilities, Zimmerman said.
“We’re going to find that out, but absolutely,” he said.
The Caltech effort is just one of several the Gates Foundation is supporting. Kohler
competitor American Standard Brands, which has plunged more deeply and directly into
the work than has Kohler, also received money from the foundation.
American Standard has taken a low-tech approach. The company developed a plastic
toilet pan that uses a mechanical trap door and water seal designed to close off pit latrines
from the open air and prevent flies from entering.
Last year, American Standard donated more than 500,000 of the devices to organizations
in Bangladesh, spokeswoman Nora DePalma said. The firm now is working in Kenya on an
effort, also supported by the Gates Foundation, to develop a similarly simple device for
areas that lack abundant water, DePalma said.
Different Approaches
American Standard has taken a cheaper approach, while the Caltech toilet is pricey.
Hoffmann estimates that initially it will take $1,500 to $2,000 to build.
The Caltech toilet — with its solar panel, electrochemical reactor and fuel cell battery —
also has been criticized as being too complicated.
However, Hoffmann says it's a prototype built for research and can be simplified.
But Pete Kolsky, a water and sanitation expert and professor at the University of North
Carolina, believes the “reinvent the toilet” idea needs to be put in the proper light.
The developing world’s sanitation problems are immediate, and are far more
organizational, motivational and social than they are technological, he said.
“If I were asked to advise on the investment of millions of dollars for sanitation in slum
areas in India, you can rest assured I would recommend spending none of it pursuing this
technology, and a lot more on ‘looking at what can work locally, with what people already
know how to do,’” he said.
At the same time, Kolsky said technological advances still should be pursued for potential
future benefits.
Hoffmann, for his part, is convinced technology can help solve sanitation problems where
other approaches, he said, have had little success.
“This can be done,” he said. “Fifty years ago, computers were too costly and complicated
for the average person. Today almost everyone carries a computer in their pocket."
Quiz
1
2
3
According to the article, which of the following statements is true of BOTH Kohler and
American Standard Brands?
(A)
They both received grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to
develop new sanitation technology.
(B)
They both are working to develop low-tech sanitation systems that can be
used in developing countries that lack resources.
(C)
They are both using their own resources to support the development of
hygienic sanitation systems in developing countries.
(D)
They have both designed low-cost sanitation technology that will also create
new markets to sell their products.
Based on the information in the article, which is NOT a reason why the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation designed the "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge"?
(A)
It is estimated that 1 billion people across the world still practice open
defecation and millions more use unhygienic facilities.
(B)
Millions of children under the age of 5 die each year from diarrhea-related
illnesses caused by contaminated water.
(C)
Many developing countries don't have the resources or support systems to
install flushing toilets that would hygienically treat waste.
(D)
Plumbing product companies and universities needed financial support to
develop new technology to improve sanitation systems in developing
countries.
Read the following sentence from the article.
The company is better known for producing upscale faucets and sinks
— the firm’s marketing describes its dedication to “gracious living” —
than for focusing on basic sanitation for the world’s poor.
Which of the following words from the article provides the BEST synonym for the word
"gracious" as used in the context of the article?
(A)
upscale
(B)
basic
(C)
better
(D)
poor
4
Read the following from the section "Different Approaches."
The developing world’s sanitation problems are immediate, and are far
more organizational, motivational and social than they are
technological, he said.
Which of the following sentences from the article BEST illustrates the "social" causes of
sanitation problems in developing countries?
(A)
It’s not funny, and the fact that nice people avoid talking about human waste
contributes to what is an enormous and deadly problem.
(B)
They don’t use latrines — toilets built over holes in the ground — either. They
go right on the ground.
(C)
Another 700 million use unhygienic facilities such as “hanging latrines” that
dump directly into streams, or buckets that may simply be emptied in the
streets.
(D)
In much of the world, that sort of infrastructure doesn’t exist, and may never
exist.
Answer Key
1
2
3
According to the article, which of the following statements is true of BOTH Kohler and
American Standard Brands?
(A)
They both received grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to
develop new sanitation technology.
(B)
They both are working to develop low-tech sanitation systems that can be
used in developing countries that lack resources.
(C)
They are both using their own resources to support the development of
hygienic sanitation systems in developing countries.
(D)
They have both designed low-cost sanitation technology that will also create
new markets to sell their products.
Based on the information in the article, which is NOT a reason why the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation designed the "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge"?
(A)
It is estimated that 1 billion people across the world still practice open
defecation and millions more use unhygienic facilities.
(B)
Millions of children under the age of 5 die each year from diarrhea-related
illnesses caused by contaminated water.
(C)
Many developing countries don't have the resources or support systems to
install flushing toilets that would hygienically treat waste.
(D)
Plumbing product companies and universities needed financial support
to develop new technology to improve sanitation systems in developing
countries.
Read the following sentence from the article.
The company is better known for producing upscale faucets and sinks
— the firm’s marketing describes its dedication to “gracious living” —
than for focusing on basic sanitation for the world’s poor.
Which of the following words from the article provides the BEST synonym for the word
"gracious" as used in the context of the article?
(A)
upscale
(B)
basic
(C)
better
(D)
poor
4
Read the following from the section "Different Approaches."
The developing world’s sanitation problems are immediate, and are far
more organizational, motivational and social than they are
technological, he said.
Which of the following sentences from the article BEST illustrates the "social" causes of
sanitation problems in developing countries?
(A)
It’s not funny, and the fact that nice people avoid talking about human waste
contributes to what is an enormous and deadly problem.
(B)
They don’t use latrines — toilets built over holes in the ground — either.
They go right on the ground.
(C)
Another 700 million use unhygienic facilities such as “hanging latrines” that
dump directly into streams, or buckets that may simply be emptied in the
streets.
(D)
In much of the world, that sort of infrastructure doesn’t exist, and may never
exist.