Inside Poop: The Enduring Importance of Toilets
via flickr user girlingearstudio
It’s time to take toilets seriously. Some 2.6 billion people around the world don’t have access to toilets and it’s a dangerous problem. In fact, diarrhea, a leading cause of death in children under 5 according to NPR, stems from unsanitary conditions. On the flip side, toilets are said to add 20 years to our lives.
The World Toilet Organization (no joke), the Gates Foundation and leaders in the movement towards improving sanitation around the world gathered at a conference last week on, well, poop. Their challenge today is how to reinvent the toilet. A new, inexpensive toilet that recycles waste, for example, could save millions of lives and help reduce poverty.
While we’re eager to learn of new gadgets and cool inventions of the future, we forget that the inventions needed most are low-cost versions of the fundamental inventions we already have. These could truly change the world. In the words of the Gates Foundation video: “Let’s get our shit together, and do it.”
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