Gates Foundation and Global Partners Announce Commitments ta Advance Commercialization of Disruptive, Off-Grid Toilet Technologies
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC), today joined global innovators, development banks, private-sector players, and governrnents at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing. Together, they committed to accelerate the commercialization and adoption of disruptive sanitation technologies world-vide over the next decade. Rapid expansion of new, off-grid sanitation products and systems could dramatically reduce the global human and economic tell of unsafe sanitation, including the deaths of half a million children under the age of 5 each year and the more than $200 billion that is Iost due to health care costs and decreased incarne and productivity.
A range of companies from around the world came together at the Expo ta display a new class of sanitation solutions that eliminate harmful pathogens and convert waste into by-products like clean water and fertilizer—all without connections ta sewers or water liner. Companies from China (Clear, CRRC, EcoSan), the United States (Sedron Technologies), India (Eram Scientific, Ankur Scientific, Tide Technocrats), and Thailand (SCG Chemicals) announced the availability of the world’s first pathogen-killing reinvented toilets and small-scale waste treatment plants (called omni-processors), which are now ready for sale to municipal and private entities. LIXIL, headquartered in Japan, announced plans to bring ta pilot a household-level reinvented toilet based on a leading prototype.
“This Expo showcases, for the first time, radically new, decentralized sanitation technologies and products that are business-ready,” said Bill Gates during the opening plenary of the Reinvented Toilet Expo. “It’s no longer a question of if we can reinvent the toilet and other sanitation systems. Ifs a question of how quickly this new category of off-gril solutions will scale.”
Development finance institutions at the Expo—including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the African Development Bank—announced commitments with the potential ta unlock $23 billion in financing for City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation projects that provide people in ail parts of a City—including the poorest neighborhoods—with safely managed sanitation services. The banks’ pledges represent the biggest-ever coordinated set of commitments exclusively for urban sanitation. Significantly, these efforts will accelerate the adoption of navel non-sewered sanitation solutions in Iow- and middle-income countries. UNICEF announced an ambitious, new sanitation market-shaping strategy to help scale and deploy product and service innovations and increase private-sector engagement. The French Development Agency committed to double its funding for sanitation work globally by 2022, up to 600 million euros (US $683 million) per year.
“Rapidly scalable systems that can deliver safe, sustainable sanitation to communities is fundamental ta quality of life and the development of human capital,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yang Kim, who participated in the Expo pienary. “Sanitation is a growing priority for the World Bank Group and many global leaders. I’m pieased to announce ou r new partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which will help catalyze a new generation of solutions that can bring safe sanitation ta everyone, everywhere on earth.”