Inside Out | Don’t hold your nose: the 400-year-old flush toilet is overdue for an upgrade as hundreds of millions of people go without it
- More than 2.3 billion people have no access to basic sanitation, leaving 890 million people defecating in open space, according to the WHO
- That leaves over 500,000 deaths a year among children under five, and US$200 billion in annual health costs from diseases
One of the quirkier moments of my 20-year journalistic career was an interview with the world-renowned chairman of one of Hong Kong’s most illustrious hotel groups.
As I was escorted into his huge, luxurious office to a sofa with epic views across Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, it was impossible to ignore eight toilets, seat covers up, lined along the wall towards his vast desk. It was obviously impossible to ignore them, so I could not resist asking as he walked up to shake my hand what eight toilet seats were doing decorating his office.
“You have to take toilet seats very seriously,” he responded, unabashed and matter-of-fact: “Our hotel guests spend an average one hour a day in the bathroom, and much of that sitting on the toilet. It’s a very important part of our attention to customer service that they should be as comfortable as possible. I think it is important that I test the choices personally.”
It was this question that drove Gates to walk onto a podium in Beijing last week with a carefully sealed jar of human poop in his hand to open the world’s first Reinvented Toilet Expo, showcasing 20 radically new technologies intended to transform the world’s toilet market – introducing “the most significant advances in sanitation design in nearly 200 years.”