Approximately 5000-8000 homeless
people live on the streets in
downtown Los Angeles. They have
no toilets, no access to showers,
there is a typhus outbreak. Trash
and human waste are on the
streets. Mr. Gates, perhaps
you can help out with your
toilet project.
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@Karen, Seattle and San Francisco could use some help these days too. Not to forget Portland, San Diego, Tucson......
5
This is such important work it should be a front page above the fold article or the internet equivalent.
11
Can this reporter share a transcript of the interview she had with Gates so I can see fuller context of this quote:
Mr. Gates said in an interview that “it will be at least a decade” before the reinvented toilets reach tens of millions of people in the poorest areas, and they will have to prove both practical and economical. “Nobody wants overnight solutions” in sanitation, he added.
BUT
I would think half of the world's population without proper sanitation DO want overnight solutions, also any of the other half that has a heart also wants that. A decade is ridiculous and that's capitalism for you. In a different newspaper's article on this same subject, a reporter noted: "Gates said the next step for the project is to pitch the concept to manufacturers, saying he expects the market for the toilets to be over $6 billion by 2030." That necessities of life - like access to sanitation - are determined by the capitalist market instead of a system geared to human needs rather than corporate profit - is what this is all about. That Gates has this undeserved ungodly wealth that he decides how to spend while others starve etc. - that's more capitalism for you. From this article's closing sentence: “Has any of the approaches done in the last five years created any sustainable lasting, positive impact vis-à-vis sanitation? And the answer, as far as I can see, is no.” CAPITALISM DOESN'T WORK FOR 99.9 PERCENT OF HUMANS.
8
I wonder how many North Americans recognize the neccesity of a finding a solution to for Neighbours in rural and remotes parts of the continent.
Secure water infrastructure is not just a developing world's problem but a problem for people from rural Alabama to Yup'ik communities of Alaska and one constant of Indigenous Canadians from coast to coast.
Water is a human rights (UN) and civil right (US/Canada), one that is often ignored....sadly
14
Cool, I guess? The approach does seem a little misguided though. Gates is starting a sanitation project beginning with hardware development. Seems sort of backwards to me. Based on my travel overseas, the physical toilet is the least important component when addressing sanitation. Toilets are not the primary problem when trying to improve health and living conditions among the global poor.
If Gates had said he wanted to make high efficiency toilets to combat climate change and support resource conservation, this would make a lot more sense. Testing experimental toilets on rural Chinese populations though? That doesn't sound like a humanitarian sanitation project to me.
Jimmy carter has basically eliminated Guinea worm and he's now working on trachoma among other things. He used mud latrines built and maintained by local villagers. Carter's contributions are mostly planning and education. He provided details like how many latrines are needed per household. Where to build them. How to build and maintain them properly.
The hard work was mostly done by locals though. There's not much that can go wrong with a well made pit toilet once you know what you're doing. You can build a whole heck of a lot more of for $200 million too. Like I said, this effort seems misguided.
21
Power to the poopers!
2
"Bill Gates Encourages the World to Build a Better Toilet", it's called Windows
8
For the developed world that I live in, a low-water toilet that had fewer exterior surfaces to clean would be a real plus, especially for older people who have trouble bending down. As for the squatty potty, an ordinary low step does the job of raising legs to a more anatomically correct position.
4
Gates means well, but he’s a top-down social engineer who doesn’t understand that change is a two-way street, between the billionaire and the peasant. Collective farms in the Maoist era used inexpensive, small concrete septic tanks with an outhouse on top. When filled they were lidded, the human waste fermented anaerobically, methane by-product collected for cooking, and the sterilized waste used as fertilizer. The dismantling of rural communes in the late ‘70s set back rural hygiene. Rural communities are deeply conservative and need outsiders to help them move forward. But billionaire CEOs have a difficult time grasping that deep and long-lasting change is democratic, discussing what peasants want, selecting and enhancing the best ideas, and implementing a local policy that meets the international goal of hygiene and recycling.
12
Too fancy and too complicated. No electricity or water required??? Plastic or fiberglass porta-potties, with easily removed, slide out, half barrels to collect waste. The waste then burned or chemically treated and dried out, to use as fertilizer. My own maternal grandparents used an outhouse until I was about 10 years old. My father, a plumber, installed their first bathroom. No, not ideal. But much better than going in the bushes or in a field. Outhouses WERE state of the art, for Centuries. Seriously.
11
Yet another reminder of how very lucky we are here and take so much for granted. To think that in 2018, half the world's population must undergo such unpleasantness and risk horrible disease day in and day out just to satisfy a basic human need is horrible. Bless you - again - Bill and Melinda, for doing what the rest of us can't or won't.
8
I respect the Gates foundation effort to improve the sanitation needs of the world, however, I remember a contest that asked Architects to design a portable clinic to serve the bush country in Africa. In idiotic architectural manner, all sorts of over the top top ideas were presented. However in all the absurdity that was presented, the winning design was a bicycle pulling a simple skid device which contained the basic preventive medicine that is required in 99% of the cases in the bush. The same needs to be done with the toilet issue.
11
Some think modern sanitation is the greatest advance of human civilization. It's something we all may take for granted, but a quarter of the world's population not having access to safe sanitation is a problem screaming for a solution. It's not enough to provide clean water to people; you also need sanitation.
21
The problem is not really that there aren't enough toilets; rather, there are too many people. And regarding "recycled" water from human waste, please report on whether excreted drugs, drug metabolites, hormones, nanoparticles, plastics, and other potentially toxic substances such as dyes can be excluded from the water.
21
While we should be motivated by the well-being of our fellow humans, if that's not enough, all of us still have an interest in the success of this project. Infectious diseases know no international boundaries.
5
The down-side of the Squat toilets is difficulty as knees get older and older.
10
What a waste. Tech-enabled toilets? Talk about reinventing the wheel. Composting toilets solve off-grid needs and are already out there for sale at places like Amazon. All Bill Gates needs to do is direct China’s leaders to the source.
The Gates fortune was made using US taxpayer funded research that began with DARPA and the US government-funded tech revolution coming off the Space program. China has plenty of its own wealth, made possible by American consumers, along with its own tech billionaires who should be looking after their own countrymen.
Meanwhile, grinding poverty, poor health, dismal public schools, and homelessness plague rural and urban America with greater and greater severity. Bill Gates owes the US, not China, and should begin giving back to the country that made his wealth possible by funding solutions to the gross inequality his obscene wealth caused.
14
@left coast finch - Bill and Melinda Gates are spending their money trying to improve life on Earth. The two have also spent millions on public schools in this country. They have also spent additional millions on homelessness in the State of Washington. What have you done? Bill and Melinda Gates aren't the problem. They don't owe anyone anything.
35
There is a toilet on sale here in the US that incinerates the waste, uses no water and needs no sewer. The waste is also rendered harmless.
Just need electricity.
https://www.barnstablecountyhealth.org/resources/publications/compendium-of-information-on-alternative-onsite-septic-system-technology/incinerating-toilets
8
After many visits to India and Southwest Asia I realize Gates is on to the one thing that really oppresses women. Even in hospitals the bathrooms and changing rooms for women are disgusting. The rest of the environment is disgusting as well but men don't have skirts and they can pee anywhere. I think the neglect of sanitation in these cultures relates to male indifference to women's needs almost more than poverty. Bill and Melinda are people we should be proud of.
61
Bill Gates has been devoted to this cause for a few years now. He funded a company outside of Seattle that manufactures a machine that can turn sewage into clean water and energy. You can read about it here and also watch a video of Bill himself drinking the water produced.
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Omniprocessor-From-Poop-to-Potable
22
As for public toilet, I prefer the old Chinese style- a toilet on the ground. This is a lot more hygienic to me than the modern type. In China, some public bathrooms offer both style, the old fashioned ones are always the most popular.
As for making the world a better place, how much I wish Gates foundation could share some effort and resources on population control and nature/wildlife conservation! Nevertheless, my full respect to the Gates.
13
@FF Ren
In 1986, I flew into Chengdu Airport which only had the in-ground style toilets available at the terminals. Not sure if that’s changed since.
There was quite a bit of poverty all over the city and most pubic spaces had in-ground toilets. We were put up by our hosts at a “four star” hotel that was so over the top in its “luxury” branding, we had to laugh when we entered. “Gold” and marble EVERYWHERE: floors, walls, and counters. It felt like a Trump hotel. We would have preferred a simple clean paint job and traditional tile work. Of course, it had American style toilets.
7
Most of the old style toilets are gone, for sure at airports. Chengdu is a very prosperous city just like any other big cities in China. Gone was the time when everything could only be bought with coupons whether it was for rice, sugar, or fabric (the coupons were still used in 1986). In the 70’s or early80’s, my family of 5 only had 50g of pork meat a week or maybe even a month. In 87, I entered college. Life was better, but still very basic. Now, Beijing is just like any top cities in the world. Lots of well, designed, poetic, and well maintained gardens everywhere in the neighborhoods. When my father came to visit in Chicago a few years ago, he was amazed to see the potholes in the streets, and couldn’t understand why the city didn’t fix them. On the downside of development and wealth, cancers are so common in China now even among young people. During the time I grew up, cancer and other rich country problems such obesity or allergy or depression were almost unheard of.
9
@FF Ren
Oh my, just realized I wrote 1986 instead of 2006, how ever could I make such an obvious mistake?
Thanks for the update. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to return to Chengdu as it was a visit made possible by my ex-husband’s work (loved the visit to the panda research and breeding facility though). However, I hope to return one day to Shanghai and a first time visit to Beijing is at the top of my list of world travel. I’ve read that despite typical problems that plague any major world city, it’s really become something of a wonder.
And yes, big Boomer tax cuts and spending on useless consumerism for the last 30 years were much bigger priorities than reinvesting that money into the incredible infrastructure inherited from their Greatest Generation parents. They took this country to its height of mid-Century modernity before handing it over to the “Me” generation for neglect and decay.
Of course, China’s infrastructure is all shiny and new because it’s flush with cash and at the very beginning of it’s modernization. But give it a generation or two to see how the children of the builders, in a late capitalist system built on the increasing consumerism the Chinese young are prioritizing, maintain and improve the infrastructure they inherit. If they lose interest in paying the taxes needed to maintain that infrastructure, I guarantee Chinese streets will begin to resemble Chicago.
5
Hats off to Bill & Melinda Gates. It is heartening to see where one of thee richest men in the world is dedicating his fortune to making the world a better place for mankind. This is in rank contrast to moguls like the Koch Brothers; the Walton heirs and other members of the 1% of the !% of the 1% who only use their wealth to accumulate more and more at the expense of working men and women.
On a personal note I boycott Nike products not because they endorse a player exercising his freedom of speech but because Nike enslaves poor people in other countries with slaves level wages.
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