Today is World Toilet Day, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s all about sharing your most childish poo jokes. No, it’s an internationally-recognised United Nations day dedicated to ensuring everyone has a safe toilet by 2030.
One in three people lack access to toilet worldwide, and 2.3 billion people don’t have basic sanitation facilities. That’s according to the World Health Organisation, which found that 892 million people (!) are forced to go to the bathroom in public open spaces, like street gutters and open bodies of water.
World Toilet Day shines a spotlight on the global issue to raise awareness of the need to urgently provide help for such a basic human right.
Billionaire, Microsoft Founder, philanthropist and world’s richest man, Bill Gates, gives a huge damn about sanitation. His ‘Reinvent the Toilet’ project seeks to create new, affordable sanitation solutions for those currently living without a decent working toilet.
Watch Bill Gates talk toilets below:
“A toilet not only makes your life more comfortable, getting rid of that waste is key to human health,” says Gates.
Earlier this month Bill Gates launched his first futuristic toilet in Beijing. The toilet, which Gates began work on more than seven year ago, is now ready for sale.
Presenting the toilet at the Reinvented Toilet Expo on November 5, gates held a jar of human faeces in his hand as he explained how the new toilet would change the world.
Not only does it turn human waste to fertiliser, clean water and electricity, it also doesn’t require water.
So far, Bill Gates has committed roughly $200 million to the project. But it will be at least a decade before the reinvented toilets reach those who need them most.
Watch Bill Gates unveil his reinvented toilet below:
