Monday, 3 June 2013
Dr Peter Morgan
Peter Morgan – one of my Champions − has been awarded this year’s Stockholm Water Prize. Really well deserved! Congratulations Peter!
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Monday, 19 November 2012
World Toilet Day
Today is World Toilet Day – see here and also ThePublicToilet.com. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in association with Domestos, has released this report which is well worth reading: Toilets for Health.
Friday, 16 November 2012
No toilet, no bride!
In the UK Daily Mail of 23 October: No toilet? Then no bride − the Indian government's bizarre new campaign to increase indoor lavatories. Well, that’s one way of promoting sanitation!
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Top three toilets?
From the Gates Foundation website (dated 14 August): ‘Bill Gates Names Winners of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge’:
California Institute of Technology in the United States received the $100,000 first prize for designing a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity. Loughborough University in the United Kingdom won the $60,000 second place prize for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water. University of Toronto in Canada won the third place prize of $40,000 for a toilet that sanitizes feces and urine and recovers resources and clean water.
More details were given in the 1 September issue of The Economist in an article entitled ‘Flushed with pride’ – you really must read this! Here’s a couple of quotes to whet your appetite:
“Urine is filtered through sand, and the resulting fluid is sterilised with ultraviolet light”
and
“A tank feeds mixed urine and faeces through a rig that heats it to 200°C under high pressure, killing pathogens”
– and these are meant to be prototypes of new household-level toilets for, I presume, the urban and rural poor!
All a bit too much, wouldn’t you say?
[I should have made this post a good few weeks ago, but ill health delayed me.]
California Institute of Technology in the United States received the $100,000 first prize for designing a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity. Loughborough University in the United Kingdom won the $60,000 second place prize for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water. University of Toronto in Canada won the third place prize of $40,000 for a toilet that sanitizes feces and urine and recovers resources and clean water.
More details were given in the 1 September issue of The Economist in an article entitled ‘Flushed with pride’ – you really must read this! Here’s a couple of quotes to whet your appetite:
“Urine is filtered through sand, and the resulting fluid is sterilised with ultraviolet light”
and
“A tank feeds mixed urine and faeces through a rig that heats it to 200°C under high pressure, killing pathogens”
– and these are meant to be prototypes of new household-level toilets for, I presume, the urban and rural poor!
All a bit too much, wouldn’t you say?
[I should have made this post a good few weeks ago, but ill health delayed me.]
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Agroforestry and arborloos
In a letter to The Economist (28 July 2012) Tony Simons, Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi, writes that, to reduce hunger and promote food security in the Sahel, agroforestry is the way forward. As he notes, “Trees provide not only ecological resilience but also cash income, energy, environmental services, fodder for animals and nutritious fruits”. Not a mention of arborloos. When will agriculture catch up with sanitation?
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Erdos: “World's biggest eco-toilet scheme fails”
“The dry toilets in Inner Mongolia's Daxing eco-community have been quietly replaced after three years of bad smells, health problems and maggots.” Oops! See the full entry in the Guardian Environment Network (30 July 2012).
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