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

Record ID: 344571

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: The 'Smart' toilet which could replace hole-in-the-ground disaster zone sanitation
  • Date: 4th August 2014
  • Summary: PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF REFUGEE CAMP
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti, Netherlands
  • City:
  • Country: Haiti Netherlands
  • Topics: International Relations,Disasters,Health,Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVAAFNECPYIJ70VPVBIHTJZ0XSVI
  • 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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