The Global Sanitation Challenge and Re-Inventing the Toilet
Globally, 2.5 billion people have no access to basic sanitation and excreta from an additional 2 billion people are not properly treated. This leads to tremendous impact on health, child mental and physical development, gender equity, economic development, and the environment. We have been developing a sanitation technological solution that treats human excreta at source and in off-grid settings (no grid power, running water, and sewerage connection). Using a technology based on a combination of smoldering and catalytic oxidation, our system converts human excreta into sanitized ash, gaseous emissions and treated water. Fully integrated prototypes have been built and tested in field studies in India. Value engineering and productization efforts are in progress as we work towards implementing the technology.