NETHERLANDS: The 'Smart' toilet which could replace hole-in-the-ground disaster zone sanitation

Record ID: 344570

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: The 'Smart' toilet which could replace hole-in-the-ground disaster zone sanitation
  • Date: 4th August 2014
  • Summary: DELFT, THE NETHERLANDS (JULY 17, 2014) (REUTERS) SCALE MODEL OF THE PROTOTYPE SOLAR PANEL ON THE ROOF OF THE MODEL TOILET (SOUNDBITE) (English), PROFESSOR OF SANITARY ENGINEERING, DR. DAMIR BRDJANOVIC, SAYING: "The eSOS, which stands for Emergency Sanitation Operation System, is a holistic approach to the emergency sanitation. It involves several components - eSOS smart toilet, smart transport, and dislodging of each toilet unit, and centralised treatment of faeces and urine and the safe disposal of materials, like dry sludge, which is pathogen-free and the clean water which can be reused further in the system." eSOS TOILET'S SOFTWARE (SOUNDBITE) (English), PROFESSOR OF SANITARY ENGINEERING, DR. DAMIR BRDJANOVIC, SAYING: "We can witness the experimental smart toilet, which is exposed in our garden at the moment, and will be transported in a few months, after some initial testing to the Philippines and be applied in real world conditions in a refugee camp. After that, we will get very valuable information on the toilet itself, how the toilets are used, what are the main features that can be beneficial for the future and all this information will be translated into a prototype, which is this prototype here behind me." SCALE MODEL OF PROTOTYPE TURNING ON THE TABLE FINGERS ON SCREEN, SHOWING SOFTWARE DATA (SOUNDBITE) (English), PROFESSOR OF SANITARY ENGINEERING, DR. DAMIR BRDJANOVIC, SAYING: "After that, we can treat all liquid waste, coming from the sludge treatment and from urine, into membrane bio-reactors, it's a novel technology which will treat liquid part to the level that you can even at the end, with some disinfection, have re-use of water for either toilet use or irrigation, horticulture, or any other purpose that you can imagine in a refugee camp." BRDJANOVIC ENTERING THE TOILET TOILET SEAT BRDJANOVIC HOLDING A SQUATTING PAN (SOUNDBITE) (English), PROFESSOR OF SANITARY ENGINEERING, DR. DAMIR BRDJANOVIC, SAYING: "And in our final prototype we will have a possibility to have a universal seat and squatting pan interchangeable, so depending on the culture and the location where you want to put the toilets, you will be able to adapt it to local conditions, culture." UNDERSIDE OF THE TOILET WITH PLUMBING (SOUNDBITE) (English), PROFESSOR OF SANITARY ENGINEERING, DR. DAMIR BRDJANOVIC, SAYING: "This toilet employs inside a urine diversion seat, urine diversion toilet which separates faeces from urine and this faeces and urine are collected under the toilet. I can show you now the place where, in this experimental toilet, we have a collection of urine: we have a tank which can collect about hundred litres of urine and this is the tank that collects faeces, about eighty kilo of faeces. This amount allows for about two hundred uses until one or two tanks are full, which means that under emergency conditions we can provide uninterrupted service for about five to seven days." TOILET SEAT
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti, Netherlands
  • City:
  • Country: Haiti Netherlands
  • Topics: International Relations,Disasters,Health,Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA1RPTAZMTXE1WT59U8WNMR1YO5
  • Story Text: Emergency sanitation in disaster zones is still inadequate in many areas around the world. After an earthquake or tsunami, relief efforts for victims too often include toilets made out of holes in the ground.
    Damir Brdjanovic, and his team at UNESCO-IHE are trying to change that. They've developed a lightweight, experimental toilet, called the eSOS that runs on solar power.
    Brdjanovic says the goal of the Emergency Sanitation Operation System (eSOS) toilet is to bring disaster relief into the 21st century. The lightweight system is ideal for transporting to disaster zones, while what makes it unique is that it's designed to deal with the entire emergency sanitation chain, including re-cycling urine into irrigation water.
    "It's a holistic approach to the emergency sanitation. It involves several components, eSOS smart toilet, smart transport and dislodging of each toilet unit and centralised treatment of faeces and urine and the safe disposal of materials, like dry sludge, which is pathogen-free and the clean water which can be reused further in the system," Brdjanovic said.
    By improving sanitation the eSOS concept minimises the threat to public health, while the system contains 'smart' features, such as an energy supply unit, a GPS sensor, and a monitor that keeps track of waste accumulation. All of this data from the toilet system can be transferred to an emergency co-ordination centre so officials can better determine the needs of an affected area.
    As for its practical capability, the eSOS's recycles liquid waste with the help of membrane bio-reactors.
    "We can treat all liquid waste, coming from the sludge treatment and from urine, into membrane bio-reactors, it's a novel technology which will treat liquid part to the level that you can even at the end, with some disinfection, have re-use of water for either toilet use or irrigation, horticulture, or any other purpose that you can imagine in a refugee camp," Brdjanovic added.
    The toilet is still in the testing phase and will be deployed in a refugee camp in the Philippines later this year, with the hope of providing relief for disaster victims.
    The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partly funded the project.
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