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| A toilet that uses solar energy to convert waste into fuel |
For an emerging economy like India, it is indeed shameful
that half of its population – 620 million – has no access to toilets and is
therefore forced to defecate in open. The practice is rampant in both rural
areas and urban pockets.
The government has drawn up massive plans to construct
millions of toilets every year, but the pace is so slow that India would be
able to meet the sanitation target under the Millennium Development Goals only
by 2054. The reason for this is simple – providing sanitation is like laying
power lines. You have to construct not just toilets but also lay sewer lines,
treatment plants and provide water.
Can technology help provide any shortcuts?
Yes, it is possible to construct community toilets which are self-sustaining,
have onsite treatment plants and consume very little or no water.
Six groups of
Indian researchers from top ranking institutes have got grants from the
Department of Biotechnology to do jus this, under a unique programme called
“Reinvent the Toilet”. Next generation toilets will use solar energy to
incinerate waste or biogas digester to convert it into compost and will be able
to treat liquid waste locally. Some prototypes developed in other countries
will also be field tested in India.
At present, some of these prototypes –
which were displayed in the capital recently - look more like mini factories,
but their developers are confident that final products would be much sleeker.
Read full story at:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/climate-change-global-warming-sanitation-iit-gandhian-tech-awards/1/352399.html
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