Gates Foundation’s ‘Reinvent the Toilet’ Challenge Questioned By Experts

“Bill and Melinda Gates’ competition to produce a high-tech toilet for the developing world has been questioned by toilet experts,” SciDev.Net reports. “An environmental engineer and an NGO worker have criticized the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for funding the development of advanced toilets that would be too expensive to provide sanitation for the 2.5 billion people without access to a toilet,” the news service notes, adding, “The foundation should instead focus on cheaper technologies and ways to get toilets into communities in a sustainable way, they say.” The news service notes, “The Gates Foundation launched the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge in 2011 to inspire researchers to design toilets that work without water or electricity, and transform waste into energy and water” (Kennedy, 5/12).

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