Turning sanitation infrastructure into a bathroom appliance

The current industry gold standard of sanitation is the flush toilet connected to waterborne systems. The other extreme is the ventilated pit latrine, which conjours up images of bad odours and flies, and is the antithesis of aspirational. But we can imagine a new industry that takes the best of both worlds – a standalone toilet system giving you the convenience of the flush toilet.

A typical waterborne sanitation system uses flush toilets, kilometres of sewer piping, high-energy pump stations, and large wastewater treatment plants – requiring vast amounts of land, water and trillions of rand in infrastructure investment. The vision for G2RT is that it can essentially provide the same basic sanitation functions of those large, costly systems in a space no bigger than the toilet itself. This innovative self-contained system that can treat human waste safely in a house provides empowerment and ownership for the household. This brings back dignity to sanitation and offers an alternative to sewered networks. Indigent communities with no sewer system will no longer have to use toilets that offer an undignified experience. They will have their own toilet, and a better sense of responsibility and ownership for that toilet.

This sense of ownership will shift the perception that government is 100% responsible for the provision of sanitation to a more shared responsibility between South Africa’s citizens, the government and the private sector.

At a municipal level, engineers will be able to offer an alternative solution to developers and investors interested in growing new economic zones and creating jobs. But the biggest opportunity will be for businesses and investors seeking the transformative ‘Sanicorn’ opportunity as toilets such as these will revolutionise sanitation in the future.

• 4.5 billion people worldwide lack access to improved sanitation (nearly half of the world’s population) • Close to 2 billion people lack even the most basic sanitation, such as toilets or latrines • About 673 million people still defecate in the open, often in rivers where people fetch their drinking water • In 2016, inadequate sanitation and hygiene are estimated to have caused more than 500 000 deaths from diarrhoea alone • Preventable diarrhoeal diseases are the second-leading cause of death in children under age five • The UN estimates that between now and 2050, the world’s population will grow by 2 billion people. More than 90% of that growth will be concentrated in cities and in developing countries – places that are least likely to have good sanitation

Generation 2 Reinvented Toilet (G2RT) builds on the exceptional innovations developed during the original Reinvent the Toilet Challenge programme. Without inlet water or output sewer lines, G2RT is designed to be a new, affordable toilet. Could this be the solution to the world’s sanitation problems?

There has been strong level of South African engagement from partners such as the Department of Science and Innovation, the Water Research Commission, eThekwini Municipality, Khanyisa Projects and the UKZN WASH Centre

The back end of the G2RT that sits outside the home

• In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation initiated the Reinvent the Toilet challenge • The aim was to spur the creation of new toilet technologies that safely and effectively manage human waste • The foundation awarded grants to 16 researchers around the world to develop reinvented toilet technologies based on innovative approaches and engineering processes • In 2012, a two-day Reinvent the

Toilet Fair was held in Seattle,

USA, where representatives from communities were encouraged to ultimately adopt these innovative approaches to sanitation • In 2013, a Reinvent the Toilet

Challenge was launched in India and China • In 2014, the Water Research

Commission (WRC), Department of Science and Innovation, and the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation entered into a partnership to test reinvented toilets on its South

African Sanitation Technology

Evaluation Programme • In 2018, there was a Reinvented

Toilet Expo in Beijing, China, where there were product announcements and funding commitments aimed at accelerating the adoption of innovative, non-sewered sanitation technologies in developing regions around the world • In 2019, the WRC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation relaunched the first reinvented commercial demonstration platform to pilot reinvented toilet models in various settlement types such as schools, rural, informal and urban environments and transition commercial partners into viable manufacturers and suppliers of reinvented toilet technologies G2RT is the result of a global collaboration led out of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in the US. “We have gathered the best concepts from around the world and used expert engineering to integrate them into a single, standalone system,” explains Dr Shannon Yee, associate professor at Georgia Tech and lead on the G2RT programme supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

According to Yee, finding the right collaborators and then wrangling them to make decisions collectively as a global team was the hardest part of this programme. “But without this type of collaboration, solving such a complex problem would have been impossible.”

There has been a strong level of South African engagement from partners such as the Department of Science and Innovation, the Water Research Commission, eThekwini Municipality, Khanyisa Projects and the UKZN WASH Centre. Students that are part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s WASH Centre travelled to Georgia Tech to assist in the development of G2RT and are spearheading prototype testing in Durban.

The concept of G2RT is based on the premise of creating a wastewater treatment plant in a box, which safely treats faeces and recycles the water. The G2RT prototype has two parts: a front end, which looks like a typical flush toilet, and a back end, where the waste and water are processed.

When the toilet is flushed (with a small amount of water), the urine and faeces are separated.

The urine and flush water go through a multistep liquid filtration process that produces clean water. This water is then recirculated to flush the toilet.

Here, the faeces will get pasteurised, killing off all pathogens and eliminating odours before being pressed into cakes, which are then dried. These faeces cakes then fall into a receptacle that users can dispose of in the trash or compost. The waste itself is odourless and pathogen free.

Challenges

One of the challenges facing G2RT is the high cost, but the team has set an aspirational affordability target that will make it economical for all communities – indigent, low- and high-income areas. A key goal is to continue to simplify the system and pursue economies of scale to eventually lower the cost. “Together with research and development partners, we want to work alongside large manufacturing corporations to evolve the reinvented toilet design to make it less expensive, highly reliable, and adaptable to the diverse markets around the world,” Yee adds.

The G2RT prototype is remarkable, as it shows what is possible when a clear vision is set and global collaborative partnerships work towards solving the world’s sanitation challenges; however, it requires a few enablers, such as a visionary business with associated investors who transform the industry through mass production and supply models. But for this to become a reality, demand must be created and this is where national and local government is encouraged to become early customers, and to put policies in place to accelerate local manufacturing and adoption.

So, what is the goal behind the new toilet challenge? “To build an industry and create a thriving market that delivers life-changing sanitation innovations to the billions of people who need them. To transform sanitation from an unreliable and unequal system that endangers the health and livelihoods of billions, into a valuable enterprise,” concludes Yee.

The concept of G2RT is based on the premise of creating a wastewater treatment plant in a box TOP Dr Shannon Yee, associate professor at Georgia Tech and lead on the G2RT programme ABOVE G2RT builds on the exceptional innovations developed during the original Reinvent the Toilet Challenge programme