Gates Foundation announces new round of grants for on-site sanitation

The Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is inviting innovators to send letters of inquiry for round 3 of the Reinvent The Toilet Challenge.

Successful applicants will receive grants to design, prototype and test on-site, self-contained sanitation modules for individual families or neighbourhoods. Self-contained means no connections to piped water, sewerage or energy (electricity/gas) utility services. with Capital and operational costs should not exceed US$ 0.05/user/day. Designs should be able to deal with sanitary products like paper, cloth, sand, and other personal hygiene products and chemicals.

There is a two-step application process:

1. submission of a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) in the form of a 5 page concept note by  8 November 2012, 11:00pm PST
2. eligible applicants will be requested to submit a full proposal

For the full call, submission guidelines and online application go to:

www.gatesfoundation.org/watersanitationhygiene/Pages/loi-round3-reinvent-toilet-challenge.aspx

Does external funding for WASH in Schools undermine national and local commitment? Join the debate

You are invited to join the second in a series of three e-debates on WASH in Schools, inspired by lessons from the SWASH+ Project. It will take place from 1-5 October on  ircwash.createdebate.com

The key question that we are raising in this e-debate is:  When NGOs, donors and other stakeholders fund direct delivery of school WASH services do they undermine the commitment of national governments and communities to do so?

African Sanitation Think Tank to be launched at high level meeting

Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA) will launch the African Sanitation Think Tank (ASTT) at a high level forum in Senegal this December. The aim of the think thank is show how sanitation policies can be translated into action on the ground.

The initial ASTT activities will be based on the interim findings from two WSA studies – ‘Economic and Financial Models for Pricing and Setting Sanitation Tariffs for the benefit of the Urban Poor’ and ‘On-site Sanitation’.

The ASTT launch will take place during the 2nd Africa High Level Forum on Water and Sanitation for all, which is scheduled for 12-14 December 2012 in Dakar, Senegal. The theme of the forum is “Innovative Financing and Investments to accelerate access to water and sanitation in Africa”.

Other sanitation-related highlights of the forum include:

• a session led by His Royal Highness Prince of Orange on UNSGAB’s ‘Sanitation Drive to 2015’ Initiative
• Innovations Fair – Re-Invent the Toilet: Africa
• Launch of the Sanitation and Water for Africa Development Initiative Fund (SWADIF)

Related web sites:

• 2nd Africa High Level Forum on Water and Sanitation for all
• Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA)
• UNSGAB – ‘Sanitation Drive to 2015’

 

Making sanitation subsidies effective: an IRC summer debate

By Carmen da Silva Wells

Every year, diarrhoea kills more children in developing countries than AIDS, malaria and measles combined (Pruss-Ustun 2008). Sanitation subsidies are a common tool used to motivate households to construct toilets. This seems an obvious response: many who lack access to sanitation are extremely poor and the potential public health benefits of universal access to safe sanitation are immense. But what is a subsidy? All programmes have some form of subsidy – so the question is HOW to use them effectively.

On the 11th of September, IRC debated the pros and cons of sanitation subsidies. The debate started with short presentations for and against sanitation subsidies. After that, discussions shifted towards a common definition of a subsidy and improvements to ensure subsidies contribute to sustainable services.

Gates awards US$ 3.4 million in new sanitation grants

Bill Gates with His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange (left) at the Reinvent the Toilet Fair in Seattle on August 14, 2012. Photo: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a second round of Reinvent the Toilet Challenge grants totaling nearly US$ 3.4 million. The announcement took place on 14 August during the Reinvent the Toilet Fair in Seattle, USA (see also the earlier post Winners of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge).

Winning grants:

Cranfield University This nearly US$ 810,000 grant will help develop a prototype toilet that removes water from human waste and vaporizes it using a hand-operated vacuum pump and a unique membrane system. The remaining solids are turned into fuel that can also be used as fertilizer. The water vapor is condensed and can be used for washing, or irrigation. Read Cranfield University’s press release.
Contact: Fiona Siebrits/ +44 (0) 1234 758040 / f.c.siebrits@cranfield.ac.uk

Eram Scientific Solutions Private Limited A grant of more than US$ 450,000 will make public toilets more accessible to the urban poor via the eco-friendly and hygienic “eToilet.” Read earlier posts about Eram’s E-Toilet Delight here and here.
Contact: Manohar Varghese / +91 9747060700 / manohar@eramscientific.com

RTI International This US$ 1.3 million grant will fund the development of a self-contained toilet system that disinfects liquid waste and turns solid waste into fuel or electricity through a revolutionary new biomass energy conversion unit. For more info read RT’I's press release
Contact: Lisa Bistreich-Wolfe / +1 919.316.3596 / lbistreich@rti.org

University of Colorado Boulder A nearly US$ 780,000 grant will help develop a solar toilet that uses concentrated sunlight, directed and focused with a solar dish and concentrator, to disinfect liquid-solid waste and produce biological charcoal (biochar) that can be used as a replacement for wood charcoal or chemical fertilizers. Read the University’s press release.
Contact: Karl Linden / +1 303 302 0188/ Carol Rowe / +1 303 492 7426 / Carol.Rowe@colorado.edu

Source: Gates Foundation, 14 Aug 2012

Winners of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge

August 14, 2012 | By Bill Gates

Today I attended the Reinvent the Toilet Fair— a fascinating learning experience and an important step in providing safe sanitation for everyone in the world.

A solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity – California Institute of Technology

A year ago, the foundation launched an initiative to tackle the problem of sanitation in the developing world. We called it the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. In this photo gallery you can learn more about each of the grantees and their sanitation solutions.

This week in Seattle, the foundation is holding a Reinvent the Toilet Fair. Today I awarded prizes to three universities who responded to our challenge a year ago to come up with solutions for capturing and processing human waste and transforming it into useful resources.

The winners included:

• first place to California Institute of Technology in the United States for designing a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity,
• second place to Loughborough University in the United Kingdom for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water, and
• third place to University of Toronto in Canada for a toilet that sanitizes feces and urine and recovers resources and clean water.

A special recognition was awarded to Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) and EOOS for their outstanding design of a toilet user-interface.

• Photos, more info

Watch this AP video report on the Reinvent the Toilet Fair.

Help a local journalist examine the sustainability of a water and sanitation project in Benin

Lake Nokoué, Benin. Photo: Pacôme Tomètissi

Journalist Pacôme Tomètissi wants to revisit the fishing communities of Lake Nokoué in Benin to examine the sustainability of a 5 million euro EU-funded water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) project. You can support his endeavour via the crowdfunding new website Spot.Us at:
http://spot.us/pitches/1411-les-porteurs-deau.

In 2010 Pacôme wrote a story about WASH initiatives that were helping to stop pollution of the scenic lake. Poor sanitation was threatening the health and livelihoods of the fishing communities.

IRC research calls on BRAC WASH II Programme – extended to 31 Aug 2012

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is happy to announce two research calls in the field of sanitation:

1. Low-cost sanitation technologies for areas with high groundwater tables
2. Faecal sludge secondary treatment options

These calls are part of the BRAC WASH II programme in which EUR 1.5 million will be used for innovative research, tendered to consortia of leading European and Bangladeshi research organisations. The other action research calls will focus on low-cost water supply technologies; Geo-referenced database for monitoring; menstrual hygiene management; and saline intrusion.

1. Guidelines for research call on low-cost sanitation technologies for areas with high groundwater tables

• Application form for low-cost sanitation technologies

2. Guidelines for secondary treatment options for faecal sludge

• Application form for secondary treatment options for faecal sludge

Extended deadline for submission of full proposal application forms: 31 August 2012

Please do not send requests for information or applications to the Sanitation Updates blog.

Philanthropic toilet paper: “Who Gives a Crap” raises money for sanitation

After sitting on the toilet for 50 hours, Australian social entrepreneur Simon Griffiths raised AU$ 50,000 {US$ 51,000) through crowdfunding for a new line of philanthropic toilet paper. Griffiths plans to donate 50% of the profits from the sale of “Who Gives a Crap” toilet paper to WaterAid for sanitation projects. The next step is to raise another AU$ 50,000 to convince Australian supermarkets to stock “Who Gives A Crap” rolls on their shelves by the end of the year.

See the slick, humorous campaign video.

Griffiths is CEO of social enterprise Good Goods which he co-founded with fellow engineering graduate from the University of Melbourne Jehan Ratnatunga. Their first social enterprise, Ripple.org, also helped raise funds for WaterAid. In 2010, they began working on Who Gives A Crap in 2010 together with product designer Danny Alexander, who had been was involved in the Ghanasan project.

Web site: www.whogivesacrap.org

Bangladesh: government cuts water and sanitation budget by US$ 121 million

The Bangladesh government has reduced its allocation for water and sanitation by around 10 billion taka (US$ 121 million) in the proposed 2012-13 budget. This is 29 per cent less than in 2011-2012. Just two months earlier at the SWA High Level Meeting in Washington, DC, the government had committed to increase the allocation for sanitation and water supply by 50 per cent. [1]

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Dhaka, WaterAid country representative Md Khairul Islam said that the government should raise the water and sanitation allocation and bridge the disparity between urban and rural people.

Economist Abul Barkat, chief researcher at the Human Development Research Centre, criticised the current development budget for being heavily urban biased, with 90 per cent going to urban areas (including 52 per cent to the cities of Dhaka and Chittagong) and 10 per cent to rural areas.

Both Khairul and Barkat rejected finance minister AMA Muhith’s claim, made in his budget speech on 7 June, that Bangladesh had the highest sanitation coverage – 91 per cent – in South Asia [2]. The two experts said the real figure was only 60 per cent [3], while Sri Lanka has achieved 92 per cent in terms of improved sanitation.

Bangladesh aims to reach 100 per cent sanitation coverage by 2013.

[1] Statement of Commitments by the Government of Bangladesh Sanitation and Water for All Second High Level Meeting, 20th April 2012, Washington D.C. Download full text

[2] Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Budget Speech 2012-13, Daily Star, 07 Jun 2012

[3] According to the latest figures from UNICEF/WHO, in 2010 only 56 per cent of the Bangladeshi population has access to improved sanitation (Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2012 Update)

Related news: Bangladesh: WaterAid gets Swiss and Swedish grants for WASH projects, E-Source, 27 December 2011

Related web site: WASHwatch.org - Bangladesh

Source: New Age, 13 Jun 2012