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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Take Action Overcoming Sanitation Problem in India

This self-cleaning toilet prototype from Eram Scientific Solutions is being field tested at the Manacaud School in Thiruvananthapuram, India. (photo: gatesfoundation.org)

HOW serious is the sanitation matter in India? India is a city with around 157 million of urban dwellers. Statistics of WorldBank makes the organisation reach conclusion that one in ten deaths in the country relates to poor sanitation. It further says that almost 44 million children under five have stunted growth and every year over 300,000 die from diarrhea diseases.

With this fact, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) collaborated with Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India; and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Government of India Enterprise, to include India in the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge program. Reinvent the Toilet Challenge is the Foundation’s global project that awards grant to researchers around the world who are using innovative approaches. Defining it further, the approaches

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mentioned were those based on fundamental engineering processes for the safe and sustainable management of human waste. The global project aims at creating a toilet that removes germs from human waste and recovers valuable resources such as energy, clean water, and nutrients; operates without connections to water, sewer or electrical lines, costs less than US$.05 cents per user per day; promotes sustainable and financially profitable sanitation services and businesses that operate in poor urban settings; and becomes a truly aspirational next-generation product that everyone will want to use (in developed as well as developing nations).

In India, BMGF hosted a two-day Reinvent the Toilet Fair, co-hosted by the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology with the support of India’s Ministry of Urban Development, in New Delhi. It aimed to stimulate discussion and spur partnerships to bring safe, affordable sanitation to the 2.5 billion people who lack access. The program successfully attracted a pool of 108 applications, and finally six Indian innovators were selected to be awarded the grant.

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Grant Receiver

Description A field trial grant to test off-grid, selfsustained, modular, electronic toilet for houses and communities with solar energy Eram Scientific for Indian weather, integrated with mixed Solutions Pvt. Ltd., waste processing unit. The project will Kerala in collaboration couple a modern, public toilet with an with University of advanced onsite, biological treatment South Florida system. It will be housed in a standalone unit that will be initially field tested in a suburban slum.

A proof of concept grants to use viral agents to target and kill pathogens and odourAmrita School of producing bacteria in fecal waste and also Biotechnology, Kerela develop for a way to integrate this into waste treatment systems. This is a proof of concept grant.

The project will test the concept of using ultra-sound to reduce water use in a toilet. It Pradin Technologies will also test the ability to enhance the Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore settling of fecal particles in a storage tank using ultra-sound. This is a proof of concept grant.

Indian Institute of The project will develop a single household Technology Roorkee in container that will cultivate Black Soldier Fly

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collaboration with Fresh rooms Life Sciences

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Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai

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BITS PILANI K. K. Birla Goa Campus in collaboration with Ghent University and Sustainable Biosolutions LLP

larvae, using human feces, which can be processed into valuable products. The project will also demonstrate the market potential for these products. This is a proof of concept grant.

The project will evaluate the concept of using fine sand-like material and an air blower to create a water-free toilet interface that is free from odour and flies.

BITS PILANI K. K. Birla Goa Campus in collaboration with Ghent University and Sustainable Biosolutions LLP

Source: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2014/03/IndianResearchers-Selected-to-Develop-Next-Generation-Toilets

BMGF is committed to help all people to live healthy and productive lives. The Foundation’s Water, Sanitation & Hygiene program works to develop tools and technologies that can lead to sustainable and substantial improvements in sanitation in the developing world. UCLG ASPAC has began its collaboration with BMGF to advocate the importance of Non-Sewerage System (NSS) and strengthen the capacity of local governments in implementing Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) - Institutional and Regulatory Framework (IRF). The project targets local governments and their associations in two countries, Bangladesh and Nepal. Municipal Association of Bangladesh (MAB) and Municipal Association of Nepal (MuAN) will be the implementing agencies of the project. The project will contribute in improving and implementing the national policies as well as in developing various financing schemes on NSS and FSM. This 3-year project will be launched in both countries in March-April 2018.