Below is Children Without Worms’ reaction to Gates’ Foundation announcement of new sanitation technology funding to reinvent the toilet.
By: Kerry Gallo, Senior Program Associate of Children Without Worms
Anyone who has visited a school in sub-Saharan Africa is familiar with the sight of a dilapidated latrine. The door is hanging off the hinges (if it’s still around), the smell inside is unbearable, and flies buzz everywhere. With the organization that built the latrines long-gone and the upkeep abandoned, it’s not uncommon for latrines to fall into disrepair and neglect. It is little wonder that children faced with the option of a filthy, unsafe latrine may choose to relieve themselves in the open. Intestinal worms (or soil-transmitted helminths) spread in these conditions, leading to the deplorable figure of 800 million children worldwide at risk of infection.
So what’s the solution to sustainable school sanitation programs? According to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it is improved toilet technology: toilets built with a country’s environmental, ecologic, financial, and cultural characteristics in mind. New models that enable schools and communities to implement sanitation systems that are both sustainable and effective; toilets that meet the needs of girls, the disabled, and young children.The Gates Foundation calls it Reinventing The Toilet Challenge—but you might call it the search for “Toilet 2.0.”
The Gates Foundation recently announced $42 million in new grants to spur innovations in the capture and storage of human waste. While applauding the vast health improvements following the adoption of the flush toilet, the Foundation reminds us that technology that works in one region cannot simply be applied anywhere and everywhere. Providing adequate sanitation has long been a conundrum for the health and development community because it requires an infrastructure of pipes and plumbing, which many remote areas in the developing world simply don’t have.This funding will support “reinventing the toilet” and identifying appropriate and sustainable solutions to the sanitation crisis.
Through our partnerships with organizations like the World Health Organization, the World Bank, Deworm the World, and other groups, Children Without Worms advocates for a comprehensive approach to control intestinal worms by promoting the WASHED framework in schools—Water, Sanitation, Hygiene Education, and Deworming—all critical components in preventing the cycle of reinfection. In addition to new toilet technology, integrated hygiene education and clean water solutions are critical to tackling diseases such as intestinal worms.
Children Without Worms advocates for appropriate sanitation solutions not only for schools, but for entire communities. The safe capture and storage of human waste is critical not only in preserving the health of children and adults, but in maintaining a healthy and stable ecosystem. Through our work with the World Wildlife Fund in Cameroon, improvements to water and sanitation systems have been made in communities of the Ba’ka and Bantu people living in the Congo Basin forests. A more sustainable way of living is being established in these communities, one that emphasizes the care and preservation of the forest environment and its ecosystems while at the same time, improving human health. Through infrastructure upgrades and behavior change education, environmental and human health will share the benefits. The commitment of the Gates Foundation to new toilet technology will generate new potential for improved sanitation systems that meet the environmental as well as the human needs of diverse communities and ecosystems around the world.
Children Without Worms looks forward to working our partners in the fields of WASH, school health, and deworming to identify opportunities to integrate “Toilet 2.0” technology into school and community health programs in order to build a healthier future for the world’s children.