Bill Gates uses jar of poop to draw attention to the world’s toilet problem at China expo
- Billionaire philanthropist tells event in Beijing about charity’s work to bring down cost of providing safe sanitation in developing countries
- He says technologies on show at three-day event are ‘most significant advances in nearly 200 years’
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates wants the world to take notice of a serious issue that affects nearly half of the population – sanitation.
The Microsoft founder has been investing in finding solutions to the problem for the past seven years. Opening the three-day Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing on Tuesday, he said his charity had already spent US$200 million on research and development into sanitation technology to bring down the cost of providing clean and safe facilities in developing countries, especially areas without sewers. And it plans to spend another US$200 million.
“We are all here for one reason: because more than half the world’s population doesn’t have the safe sanitation they need to lead healthy and productive lives,” Gates told officials, business owners, bankers and academics at the expo hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
I have to say, a decade ago I never imagined that I’d know so much about poop
To make his point, Gates brought on stage a jar of human waste, saying the pathogens it contained could cause diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid – illnesses that kill nearly 500,000 children aged under five every year in places without proper sanitation.
He said he became aware of the problem when he began travelling to poor areas with his wife Melinda Gates and found children playing in lanes strewn with human waste and where the water was contaminated.
They recognised the need to provide sanitation as a step to reducing poverty.
“One of the things we’re able to do as a foundation is invest in the early-stage R&D needed to create a path forward for the private sector to commercialise technologies and products that also help us achieve our goals. It’s a real win-win,” Gates said.
He said the foundation’s partners had developed a self-powered technology that takes in human waste, kills dangerous pathogens and converts the resulting materials into products with potential commercial value – like clean water, electricity and fertiliser.