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.”