Smarter Toilets, Improving Hygiene
and Sanitation Worldwide
February 13, 2016
Story at-a-glance
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As many as 2.5 billion people live where sanitation
isn’t available; around 2 million tons of waste enters
waterways daily, causing cholera and other diseases
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Clean drinking water, as well as water for cleaning,
laundry and sanitation is lacking in many developing
countries and even in the U.S., but money to fix it is a
global problem
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Drought, clogged sewers, water main breaks,
pharmaceutical and farm run-off, plastic water bottles,
and the risk of BPA poisoning are all results of water
shortage or contamination
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The “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” has created a toilet
with its own built in treatment plant; the Omni
Processor, another innovation, converts feces into safe
drinking water
By Dr. Mercola
For people in most Western societies, having access to clean
water for multiple uses at any moment is a given — it's as close as
the nearest faucet.
But while thousands of people spend hours every day looking for
water, the lack of water for hygienic purposes impacts millions, a
problem that is potentially deadly on a staggering scale.
This need is made even more sobering by statistics revealing that
about 2 million tons of human waste are dumped in the nearest
ditches, ponds, rivers and oceans every single day. One
reason is that 2.5 billion people live in areas where sanitation is
simply unavailable.1
It's a global crisis.
This compromises whatever clean drinking water there might
available. This type of feces-laced water pollution results in
cholera epidemics and contributes to rampant diarrhea, as well as
typhoid outbreaks.
The infant mortality rate even in the U.S., sorry to say, is
appalling. Today there are more than 6 infant deaths per 1,000
births, which is higher than 27 of the world's wealthiest countries,
and it's directly related to
poor hygiene due to lack of clean water and sanitation,
according to WaterAid's Healthy Start.2
The World's Most Pressing Need: Clean, Running Water
Managing the water and sanitation requirements in some urban
areas is a challenge that's been out of control for decades.
Developing and sustaining efficient water management is even more
difficult because populations continue to grow. According to a UN
report:3
- Half of humanity now lives in cities. Within two decades,
nearly 60 percent of the world's population — 5 billion
people — will be urban dwellers.
- Urban growth is fastest in the developing world, where
cities gain an average of 5 million residents each month.
- The population explosion in urban areas has created
unprecedented challenges, of which limited access to clean water
and sanitation may be the most urgent.
- Cities require a very large input of freshwater and in turn
have a huge impact on freshwater systems.
- Cities are unsustainable without reliable access to safe
drinking water and adequate sanitation.
It's a crisis on an epic scale, but what can be done?
Water Scarcity and Pollution Not Just in the Third World
Even in parts of the U.S., water is a scarce and precious
commodity. In fact, the Government Accountability Office predicts
that in just the next decade, 40 U.S. states will experience some
type of
water shortage. There are several reasons why.
California's water shortage stems from the state's worst drought
on record. ABC News reported:
"State water managers say California's snowpack needs to
be at 150 percent of normal on April 1 to signal an end to
drought …
The lack of surface water supplies for irrigation during
the drought has forced many farmers to use groundwater to keep
their crops alive, drawing down wells and leading many to run
dry."4
Colorado, Arizona and surrounding states are sharing the concern.
The Water Project5
website noted:
"It seems impossible that a powerful river like the
Colorado River is beginning to run dry in places. It seems
farfetched that a huge body of water like Lake Mead in Arizona
might become obsolete, but these and other dramatic changes are
facing the United States."
And That's Not the Only Reason
A recent instance is the crisis in Flint, Michigan, where
citizens have been warned not to drink their tap water because lead
from old pipes is releasing excessive amounts of lead into it.
This ongoing public health emergency in the short term required
the National Guard6
to distribute bottled water and water filters by the thousands.
Correcting the catastrophe will be a long-term and costly
enterprise.
The problem in Flint helps explain why a carefully planned
infrastructure is critical to maintaining water quality and also
preventing future shortages.
It also explains why one of the biggest problems for the 2.5
billion city dwellers in developing nations who don't have clean
water is that there's no system in place for such technology.
In the U.S., multiple problems have been related either to a lack
of water or its contamination:
- Many lakes are at risk due to farm fertilizer runoff. High
levels of nitrates from
factory farms have been detected in the water, a potential
cause of reproductive problems, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and
more.
- About half of the dentists in the U.S. still use
mercury (amalgam) fillings, and the mercury ends up in
wastewater and eventually, water treatment facilities.
- According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, 56
million Americans in 25 states are drinking water contaminated
with arsenic at unsafe levels.
- In one study, 80 percent of the water samples from 139
streams in 30 states contained measurable levels of hormones,
painkillers, antidepressants, etc.
Pharmaceutical drug-contaminated drinking water results from
urine and feces being flushed or the drugs themselves being
flushed down drains or toilets.
- People
reusing plastic water bottles risk contamination due to
bisphenol-A (BPA) in the plastic, which may also contain
phthalates that may pose serious health hazards to pregnant
women and children.
There's also wear from repeated use, which
can lead to bacterial growth in surface cracks.
- Antiquated pipes in peoples' homes, as well as city
waterworks, have led to dangerously high levels of lead, copper,
E. coli and trihalomethanes (THMs), which experts say
are associated with bladder cancer and gestational and
developmental problems.
- Testing of municipal water systems from 43 states revealed
chemicals in the water considered "probable human
carcinogens" in every single system.
Sewer Overflows and Sewer Breaks — A Sticky, Stinky Problem
Then there are sanitary sewer overflows caused by power failures,
defective sewer systems and other factors.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that as
many as 75,000 sewer break-downs take place somewhere in the U.S.
every year, and that's not even counting sewage back-ups into
buildings.7
For example, in Great Britain, an 11-ton "Fatburg" consisting of
so-called
"flushable" wet wipes, household sewage and congealed fat broke
a sewer pipe in London, England, in 2015, requiring months of repair
and causing damage amounting to more than $600,000.8
Similar problems involve innumerable, aging infrastructures
throughout the U.S.
In Washington, for instance, the Washington Suburban Sanitary
Commission reported after a huge water main break that only a
"miracle" valve fix prevented upwards of 300,000 residents from
needing to stock up on water. Officials warned that taps would
likely run dry for a minimum of five days.
"Bottled water was stripped from the shelves; people
filled trash cans and bathtubs with water to flush toilets;
firefighters and medical personnel activated contingency plans;
and the regional planning organization began coordinating
support from other counties and other states.
National Harbor, the sprawling shopping and entertainment
complex on the Potomac River, was shut down. Hotel guests
checked out prematurely, and restaurants closed abruptly."9
Further, The Atlantic reported:
"Harmful algal blooms like the one that cost Toledo, Ohio
its drinking water last summer, fish kills like the one reported
off Long Island, and the much-discussed dead zone in the Gulf of
Mexico are all fed by phosphorus, nitrogen, and other
contaminants found in the untreated sewage that, according to
EPA estimates, flows out of America's treatment plants during
the 23,000 to 75,000 sanitary-sewer overflows that happen per
year."10
The same article notes: "Sometimes the overflow is so significant
that the stormwater-and-sewage mixture backs up into the streets
where people walk." It's not always broken pipes that can bring
sewage to where we live. Freak Superstorm Sandy in 2012 is another
instance where tens of millions of gallons of sewage were spilled
into waterways all along the East Coast.
What We've Got and What We Need
In an Environmental Health Perspectives journal article titled,
"Combined Sewer Systems: Down, Dirty and Out of Date," here's how
past solutions have become part of today's problems:
"When combined sewer systems were introduced in 1855,
they were hailed as a vast improvement over urban cesspool
ditches that ran along city streets and spilled over when it
rained. These networks of underground pipes were designed to dry
out streets by collecting rainwater runoff, domestic sewage from
newly invented flush toilets, and industrial waste-water all in
the same pipe.
Waste and storm water was then discharged directly into
waterways; in the early twentieth century, sewage treatment
plants were added to clean the wastewater before it hit streams.
Combined sewer systems were — and still are — a great idea, with
one catch: when too much stormwater is added to the flow of raw
sewage, the result is frequently an overflow."11
Infrastructures are expensive. In most cities, the Powers That Be
generally discourage discussion about changing up old pipes that
have been in place since the first half of the 20th century,
although many were constructed before toilets were even invented.
As anyone who's ever sat on a sewer district, public works or
planning commission knows, regardless of its merit, it practically
requires an act of Congress to get the go-ahead to tackle something
as costly and involved as new infrastructure.
The 'Gold Standard' for Clean Water Systems
As it's always been, innovation in developing countries is driven
by desperate need, as in the 3.4 million people who die every year
from cholera, dysentery and typhoid, diseases directly related to
contaminated water. But although 98 percent of the waste is
untreated in cities such as Dhaka and Bangladesh, other emergencies
get the attention — and the money.
Brian Arbogast, director of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has spent the last
few years working with a team to upgrade the current, antiquated way
sanitation is approached, including a "reinvented toilet" that uses
energy from human waste to treat the water. The resulting water is
so clean you can use it to wash with.12
Sixteen projects have been granted funding since 2011 as part of
this "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge (RTTC)." Two such programs were
launched in 2013 — one in India and one in China:
" … [D]esigned to harness strong in-country research and
development capabilities to solve this global challenge … We are
funding research to develop truly aspirational 'next-generation'
toilets that do not require a sewer or water connection or
electricity, cost less than 5 cents per user per day, and are
designed to meet people's needs. Most of the projects use
chemical engineering processes for energy and resource recovery
from human waste."
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Unfortunately, Gates has historically channeled his billions into
vaccines instead of primarily funding clean drinking water and
sanitation projects. But believe it or not, technology tackled by
the Gates Foundation in partnership with Janicki Bioenergy has also
been developed that successfully converts feces into safe drinking
water. Called the Omni Processor, it's already being utilized in
Dakar and Senegal.
One reason developed countries don't pursue updated sanitation is
that they already have something in place. As the saying goes, you
don't fix something that isn't busted. It isn't a "felt need" until
a crisis occurs, like it has in London, England, and in Washington
and Flint and Fling in the U.S..
Composting Toilets and Urine as Fertilizer
Even in the U.S., innovations are being made to minimize the
footprint from human waste and even turn it into usable products.
Although they're not yet in widespread use, composting toilets are
widely available. Though they're currently marketed more toward use
in cabins, camps or rural areas, some describe composting toilets as
the toilet of the future. They work by evaporating liquids and
decomposing the small amount of remaining waste.
Composting toilets produce no pollution and, even better, leave
you with a safe fertilizing soil. Similarly,
human urine is also being used as a natural fertilizer, as it's
naturally rich in nitrogen (N), potassium (K), and phosphorus (P) —
the three components of most synthetic fertilizers (NPK).
What You Can Do
In Mexico, water drilling and extraction began at unsustainable
rates as early as the 1940s, leaving the groundwater contaminated
with fluoride and arsenic. A non-profit organization called
CATIS-Mexico is helping communities improve the lives of people
living in these communities, in part by providing tools to make
reusable water filters.
The filters used by CATIS-Mexico are made in a simple hand mold
using locally available clay and burn-out material (such as waste
sawdust). One CATIS filter produces about 24 liters of water a day,
requires little maintenance, and lasts two to three years. You can
help directly by supporting
CATIS-Mexico. In addition, WaterAid works in 37 countries
throughout the world, "transforming millions of lives every year
with safe water, sanitation and hygiene projects." You can
help by donating now.
© Copyright 1997-2016 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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