Gates Foundation makes poop a priority, puts toilet innovation front and center

Posted at 06:05 PM ET, 08/15/2012

By Emi Kolawole

Bill Gates, right, looks at a device that uses solar energy to treat human waste, as he tours the "Reinventing the Toliet" Fair, Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012, in Seattle. (Ted S. Warren - AP)

Bill Gates wants your ideas — ideas to improve the one thing most people probably don’t like to think about until they have to: the toilet.

That’s right, there’s a global problem when it comes to the bathroom throne: not everyone has access to one. More specifically, they lack access to clean sanitation services.

In July 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced an initiative to reinvent the toilet, along with $265 million in grants spread across a variety of efforts to spur greater innovation in sanitation.(more...)

THE HUNGER PROJECT- Oaxaca

I am behind the curve for posting, but I have been very busy.  July 26 I flew to Mexico City to Meet with THE HUNGER PROJECT- Mexico to go on a six day site visit to the Sierra Alto region of the Mazateca near San Jose Tenango.  San Jose Tenango (N18 09.046, W96 43.024) is located in the northern rain forest mountains of Oaxaca.  This trip was focused on visiting four remote communities and performing a site analysis.  The site analysis included many challenges and opportunities.

• Water and sanitation
• Clean cook stoves
• Improving the housing
• Trail improvements
• Understanding their agricultural practices
• Their coffee production

This is a short list of the areas I focused my attention to.  

The trip was AMAZING in that to get to two of the communities we hiked for several hours on some of the most difficult trails I have ever been on. (Blogger will not insert the photo in the correct orientation, it is rotated 90 degrees)!

THE HUNGER PROJECT has been working in these four communities: Rancho Pineda, Cerro Alto, Genova, Piedra de la Luz, for the past several years and now the communities are organized enough to bring i n the technical experts.

This is a GREAT opportunity for us as this is a large long term project starting in these four communities and the vision is to expand to over 100 communities.

After the site visit I then spend a few days in Mexico City (D.F.) working with THE HUNGER PROJECT and eating tacos :)


I am in the middle of writing up the site visit analysis, thus I will post more over the next few weeks.  Hopefully I can find a "workable fix" to the rotated images problem, so you can see the communities.