微軟聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人、前 CEO、比爾及梅琳達(dá) · 蓋茨基金會(huì)聯(lián)席主席比爾蓋茨今天發(fā)布《我在中國(guó)與一罐屎同臺(tái)亮相》文章。比爾蓋茨參加了在北京舉行的新世代廁所博覽會(huì)，在會(huì)上比爾蓋茨用一罐糞便作為自己的演講道具，其舉動(dòng)是為了吸引人們關(guān)注一個(gè)每年導(dǎo)致 50 多萬(wàn)人死亡的嚴(yán)重問(wèn)題：惡劣的衛(wèi)生條件。
比爾蓋茨表示，" 全世界一半以上人口使用著不安全的衛(wèi)生設(shè)施。他們糞便里的病原體進(jìn)入當(dāng)?shù)氐乃矗谷藗兩?。?chuàng)新曾是中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)轉(zhuǎn)型背后的關(guān)鍵推動(dòng)力，我樂(lè)觀地相信，它在改善衛(wèi)生條件上也能發(fā)揮相同的作用。正如我在昨天的文章中寫到的，新一代無(wú)下水道廁所有能力徹底改變數(shù)百萬(wàn)人的生活。"
下面是比爾蓋茨演講全文：
早上好！謝謝田女士的介紹。我要感謝陳洲先生，感謝中國(guó)國(guó)際貿(mào)易促進(jìn)委員會(huì)和中國(guó)國(guó)際商會(huì)與我們共同舉辦本次活動(dòng)。
很高興再次來(lái)到中國(guó)。大家共聚在新世代廁所博覽會(huì)，堪稱恰逢其時(shí)。幾十年來(lái)，中國(guó)在提高數(shù)億人民的健康和衛(wèi)生水平方面，取得了巨大成就。開(kāi)展廁所革命，體現(xiàn)了中國(guó)加快安全衛(wèi)生建設(shè)的決心。中國(guó)正面臨推廣創(chuàng)新的分散式衛(wèi)生產(chǎn)品、惠及全球億萬(wàn)民眾的契機(jī)。
雖然在座各位背景各異，來(lái)自企業(yè)、開(kāi)發(fā)銀行、學(xué)界、慈善等各個(gè)領(lǐng)域，但我們都為了一個(gè)共同的原因相聚在這里——全球還有一半以上的人用不上安全的廁所，因而無(wú)法過(guò)上健康而富有成效的生活。
如果你來(lái)自于政府，你一定希望找到如何更好地處理人類糞便這個(gè)日益嚴(yán)峻的大問(wèn)題，尤其是在城市里。
如果你來(lái)自于企業(yè)，想必你已經(jīng)意識(shí)到，隨著技術(shù)的不斷進(jìn)步，如何滿足 45 億人安全用廁蘊(yùn)含著巨大的商機(jī)。這么大的商機(jī)并不常有。
你可能在想，這個(gè)燒杯里裝的是什么？沒(méi)錯(cuò)，是人的糞便。但這么點(diǎn)兒糞便就能攜帶兩百萬(wàn)億個(gè)輪狀病毒、兩百億個(gè)賀氏菌和十萬(wàn)個(gè)寄生蟲(chóng)卵。
在沒(méi)有安全衛(wèi)生設(shè)施的地方，環(huán)境中的病毒病菌則要多得多。正是這樣或那樣的病原體引發(fā)了腹瀉、霍亂、傷寒等疾病，每年導(dǎo)致近五十萬(wàn)名五歲以下兒童死亡。
不安全的衛(wèi)生條件讓本來(lái)承受能力就弱的國(guó)家背上了更加沉重的經(jīng)濟(jì)負(fù)擔(dān)。根據(jù)估算，全球每年由于醫(yī)療成本增加、生產(chǎn)力降低和收入減少造成的經(jīng)濟(jì)損失高達(dá) 2230 億美元。
如果我們不就此采取行動(dòng)，問(wèn)題會(huì)更加嚴(yán)重。在未來(lái)幾十年，人口增加、城鎮(zhèn)化和水資源短缺等諸多因素，會(huì)導(dǎo)致非洲和亞洲那些衛(wèi)生系統(tǒng)本已不堪重負(fù)的城市承受更大壓力，由于衛(wèi)生條件惡劣造成的貧病交加的惡性循環(huán)也將越來(lái)越難被打破。
十年前，我決定停止在微軟的全職工作，開(kāi)始和梅琳達(dá)更加頻繁地訪問(wèn)貧困國(guó)家，我從那時(shí)開(kāi)始關(guān)注衛(wèi)生問(wèn)題。
在我們到訪的一些地方，孩子們?cè)诩S污遍地的路上玩耍，糞坑需要手工清掏，公共廁所臭到?jīng)]人愿意使用，當(dāng)?shù)丶彝ワ嬘玫乃彩艿郊S便污染。
這等貧困，我們見(jiàn)所未見(jiàn)，也鞭策著我們?yōu)榇俗鲂┦裁础Ｒ环矫?，人們不?yīng)該為了如廁這樣基本又自然的需求每天忍受痛苦；另一方面，如果不能保障人人安全如廁，那么梅琳達(dá)和我所追求的挽救生命和改善生活的目標(biāo)就無(wú)法實(shí)現(xiàn)。
我們同時(shí)也意識(shí)到，想要在全球范圍消除貧困這個(gè)頑疾，我們要用全新的方式來(lái)審視并最終解決全球衛(wèi)生危機(jī)。
2009 年，我向一些科學(xué)家和工程師提出了這樣一個(gè)問(wèn)題：如何才能超越長(zhǎng)期公認(rèn)的廁所 " 黃金標(biāo)準(zhǔn) "，即水沖廁所、排水管道和污水處理廠這一套體系？
我們能否采用更加經(jīng)濟(jì)的方法消滅病原體，滿足城市快速發(fā)展的需求，又無(wú)需連接下水道，還能節(jié)省已經(jīng)短缺的水資源和電力？
有些人懷疑這行不通。我可以理解。如果某些方法已經(jīng)根深蒂固，的確很難想象把它推倒重來(lái)，因?yàn)榇蠹叶加幸环N慣性本能。
在我創(chuàng)業(yè)之初，大家覺(jué)得計(jì)算機(jī)只能是大公司和政府才能買得起的大型機(jī)，這是大家對(duì)計(jì)算機(jī)的認(rèn)知慣性。但當(dāng)時(shí)我們有一部分人并不這樣認(rèn)為。我們夢(mèng)想著開(kāi)發(fā)人人都能使用的個(gè)人電腦。很多人說(shuō)我們瘋了，但我們對(duì)此堅(jiān)信不移，并找到更多志同道合之士?，F(xiàn)在大家已經(jīng)無(wú)法想象大型機(jī)時(shí)代的世界是什么樣子。
我相信在廁所領(lǐng)域也能實(shí)現(xiàn)同樣的轉(zhuǎn)變。正因如此，我們?cè)谶^(guò)去七年投入了兩億多美元，與合作伙伴共同開(kāi)發(fā)新一代無(wú)下水道連接的廁所技術(shù)。
我們必須要攻克兩大挑戰(zhàn)。首先是讓整個(gè)衛(wèi)生服務(wù)鏈條上的糞便管理變得更容易，成本更低。
數(shù)據(jù)能顯示出這一問(wèn)題的規(guī)模之大。在全球發(fā)展中國(guó)家，有 62% 的糞便沒(méi)有得到安全管理。在有些城市里，情況要糟糕得多。以南非的一座城市為例，有 97% 的人類糞便未經(jīng)處理。還有很多國(guó)家，這一比例甚至無(wú)法統(tǒng)計(jì)。
有些未經(jīng)處理的糞便在沒(méi)有下水道連接的糞坑里長(zhǎng)期存放，對(duì)居住地周圍的地下水造成污染。有些被人工或抽糞車運(yùn)走，還是被傾倒進(jìn)附近的田地或水體中。還有一些雖然被收集到下水道系統(tǒng)中，卻沒(méi)有得到安全處理。聯(lián)合國(guó)在 2015 年制定了可持續(xù)發(fā)展目標(biāo)，希望人人都能用上安全管理的廁所，可我們還差得很遠(yuǎn)。
為了解決這一問(wèn)題，我們和合作伙伴一起開(kāi)發(fā)了一個(gè)小型處理廠，能夠處理從坑廁、化糞池和下水管道中收集的糞便和有機(jī)污泥。我們把它叫做萬(wàn)能處理器，它不僅能產(chǎn)生足夠的電力支持自身運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)，還可以放置到任何一個(gè)地方。它不僅能將人類糞便中的有害病原體殺死，還能將剩下的物質(zhì)轉(zhuǎn)化成有經(jīng)濟(jì)價(jià)值的產(chǎn)品，包括清潔的水、電力和肥料。
第二個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)是發(fā)明一種自成一體的新型廁所——能夠殺死病原體，而且具有內(nèi)置的微型處理設(shè)備。我們稱之為 " 新世代廁所 "。這種廁所綜合采用了多種創(chuàng)新技術(shù)，實(shí)現(xiàn)人類糞便降解滅菌，產(chǎn)出清潔的水和固態(tài)物質(zhì)。這些固態(tài)物質(zhì)可用作肥料，或無(wú)須再做處理就可以在戶外安全排放。
對(duì)新世代廁所有需求的首先是學(xué)校、公寓樓和社區(qū)公共廁所等。
隨著這種支撐多戶使用的新世代廁所日益普及，成本不斷下降，還會(huì)產(chǎn)生適合單戶家庭使用的新世代廁所。除了資源有限的發(fā)展中國(guó)家，發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家也有民眾想要或者需要這種離網(wǎng)式的家用廁所。
我給大家展示一個(gè)適合家用的新世代廁所，它由瑞典工程技術(shù)公司赫博翎（Helbling）集團(tuán)設(shè)計(jì)。
此外，我們的合作伙伴們還開(kāi)發(fā)了能控制臭味、分離尿液和固體、保護(hù)經(jīng)期健康、處理液態(tài)物質(zhì)等方面的突破性技術(shù)。
不得不說(shuō)，十年前，我無(wú)法想象自己會(huì)如此了解糞便。也絕對(duì)沒(méi)有想到，我已經(jīng)對(duì)在餐桌前暢談廁所和糞污習(xí)以為常，以至于需要梅琳達(dá)來(lái)打斷我。
短短七年中取得的成就讓我倍感興奮。本次博覽會(huì)首次展示了經(jīng)過(guò)試點(diǎn)測(cè)試的全新廁所，它能夠有效地收集、管理和處理人類糞便。各位在這里看到的技術(shù)是近二百年來(lái)廁所領(lǐng)域最大的進(jìn)步。
多虧了來(lái)自各地的大量工程師、科學(xué)家、企業(yè)和大學(xué)院校的全球協(xié)作，才讓重新發(fā)明衛(wèi)生系統(tǒng)成為可能。
而且，我們?cè)诒ＷC安全如廁的同時(shí)，還創(chuàng)造了數(shù)十億美元的新商機(jī)。
蓋茨基金會(huì)從中發(fā)揮的作用是投資早期研發(fā)，為企業(yè)開(kāi)辟道路，幫助其進(jìn)行技術(shù)和產(chǎn)品的商業(yè)化，這反過(guò)來(lái)也在幫助實(shí)現(xiàn)我們的目標(biāo)，可以說(shuō)是實(shí)實(shí)在在的互利雙贏。
我們預(yù)計(jì)到 2030 年，僅僅是第一代的新世代廁所，每年就能在全球范圍創(chuàng)造出 60 億美元的商機(jī)。如果再算上萬(wàn)能處理器及相關(guān)產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)，分散式廁所的市場(chǎng)潛力會(huì)更大。
正如所有的顛覆性技術(shù)一樣，下一步要做的就是攜手在座各位，合作推廣技術(shù)。
今天，我很高興地告訴大家，已經(jīng)有越來(lái)越多的企業(yè)下單購(gòu)買新世代廁所和萬(wàn)能處理器。克萊爾、艾科森、SCG 石化和 Eram Scientific 等公司已經(jīng)推出了他們的首批新世代廁所產(chǎn)品，中國(guó)中車、Sedron Technologies 和 Ankur Scientific 也推出了他們的萬(wàn)能處理器產(chǎn)品。
其他商業(yè)合作企業(yè)也會(huì)推出相應(yīng)的配套技術(shù)產(chǎn)品，這些在芬美意公司的創(chuàng)新臭味控制產(chǎn)品基礎(chǔ)上開(kāi)發(fā)而來(lái)。
目前共有 20 多家企業(yè)的創(chuàng)新型無(wú)下水道連接的衛(wèi)生產(chǎn)品，已可供商業(yè)化。我們的新合作伙伴驪住集團(tuán)之后會(huì)分享是他們是如何參與到這一行業(yè)中來(lái)的。這只是第一波新型衛(wèi)生技術(shù)解決方案，未來(lái)會(huì)涌現(xiàn)出更多。
然而，僅有企業(yè)制造和銷售新產(chǎn)品的熱情是不夠的。我們還需要中央和地方政府創(chuàng)造有利環(huán)境，出臺(tái)政策法規(guī)，鼓勵(lì)創(chuàng)新衛(wèi)生服務(wù)模式，推動(dòng)政府與私營(yíng)部門合作。
讓我備受鼓舞的是，在印度、南非、塞內(nèi)加爾、孟加拉、尼泊爾等越來(lái)越多的國(guó)家，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層開(kāi)始重視用創(chuàng)新的方式實(shí)現(xiàn)廁所安全。
中國(guó)開(kāi)展了廁所革命，并且正在加速推進(jìn)安全廁所建設(shè)，使其具備了率先啟動(dòng)無(wú)下水道廁所市場(chǎng)的潛力。值得注意的是，今天在博覽會(huì)上發(fā)布產(chǎn)品的克萊爾、艾科森和中國(guó)中車這三個(gè)合作伙伴都是中國(guó)企業(yè)。這顯示出中國(guó)有推進(jìn)離網(wǎng)式廁所產(chǎn)業(yè)化的興趣，而且不僅可以滿足中國(guó)國(guó)內(nèi)需求，還可以滿足國(guó)際市場(chǎng)的需求。
我們期待著中國(guó)盡快采納無(wú)下水道衛(wèi)生行業(yè)的最高標(biāo)準(zhǔn)—— ISO30500，這有助于中國(guó)更快地樹(shù)立在新一代廁所產(chǎn)業(yè)中的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)地位。
全球金融和發(fā)展機(jī)構(gòu)也對(duì)此作出了積極的響應(yīng)。世界銀行、亞洲開(kāi)發(fā)銀行和非洲開(kāi)發(fā)銀行宣布了新的承諾，有望為城市全覆蓋衛(wèi)生項(xiàng)目（Citywide Inclusive Sanitation） 提供高達(dá) 25 億美元的資金支持。
這些承諾可以幫助生活在城市每一個(gè)角落——包括最貧困的社區(qū)的人們，獲得安全管理的衛(wèi)生服務(wù)，而且可以加快離網(wǎng)式衛(wèi)生解決方案——正如我們今天在這里所展示的——在中低收入國(guó)家的普及。
此外，聯(lián)合國(guó)兒童基金會(huì)和法國(guó)國(guó)際開(kāi)發(fā)署今天也宣布了新的戰(zhàn)略和承諾，加快創(chuàng)新解決方案的落實(shí)。這些消息都很振奮人心。
我們一直謹(jǐn)慎地思考慈善的作用，其中一項(xiàng)更適合我們?nèi)プ龅木褪?，幫助私營(yíng)部門和政府部門降低采納新技術(shù)的門檻和風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，這樣就更具規(guī)?；亟鉀Q社會(huì)問(wèn)題。
我們?cè)谛l(wèi)生領(lǐng)域也是本著同樣的原則，投資于早期研發(fā)，這樣其他人就能進(jìn)一步開(kāi)發(fā)、試點(diǎn)、推廣和銷售這些新的解決方案。蓋茨基金會(huì)承諾再投資 2 億美元用于持續(xù)研發(fā)，從而為貧困人口降低新型衛(wèi)生產(chǎn)品的成本，并在新型無(wú)下水道衛(wèi)生產(chǎn)品最能帶來(lái)廣泛影響的地區(qū)支持市場(chǎng)培育。
我們目前正處在全球廁所革命的拐點(diǎn)。問(wèn)題已經(jīng)不是我們能否發(fā)明新一代的技術(shù)，而是我們能否盡快普及這類新型離網(wǎng)式解決方案。雖然我們無(wú)法準(zhǔn)確預(yù)測(cè)需要多久，但我希望是分秒必爭(zhēng)。
謝謝大家 !
I shared the stage with a beaker of poop in China
It ’ s not often you stand on a stage next to a sample of human feces.
Yesterday, I used a beaker of poop as a prop during my speech at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing. It caused some giggles in the crowd — but I brought it out to draw attention to a serious issue that kills more than 500,000 people every year: poor sanitation.
More than half of the world ’ s population uses unsafe sanitation facilities. The pathogens from their waste find their way into the local water supply and make people sick. Innovation was a key driving force behind China ’ s economic transformation, and I believe it can do the same for improving sanitation. As I wrote on TGN yesterday next-generation, sewer-less toilets have the potential to transform the lives of millions of people.
I spoke about the potential and promise of these toilets during my speech. Here is the full text of my prepared remarks:
Remarks as prepared
Reinvented Toilet Expo
November 6, 2018
Beijing, China
Good morning, and thank you, Ms. Tian, for that kind introduction. I ’ d like to thank Mr. Chen Zhou, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, and the China Chamber of International Commerce for co-hosting this event.
It ’ s great to be in China again, and it ’ s fitting that we are meeting here for the Reinvented Toilet Expo. In recent decades, China has made great progress improving health and sanitation for hundreds of millions of people. President Xi ’ s Toilet Revolution underscores China ’ s commitment to accelerating progress on safe sanitation. And China has an opportunity to help launch a new category of innovative, decentralized sanitation solutions that will benefit millions of people worldwide.
Although the people in this room come from varied backgrounds — government, the private sector, development banks, academia, and philanthropy — we are all here for one reason: because more than half the world ’ s population doesn ’ t have the safe sanitation they need to lead healthy and productive lives.
Those of you in government are here because you want to find a way to solve the large and growing problem of what to do about human waste, especially in urban areas.
Those of you in the private sector are here because — with new advances in technology — you see a market opportunity to meet the needs of 4.5 billion people worldwide. Opportunities of that scale don ’ t come along very often.
You might guess what ’ s in this beaker — and you ’ d be right. Human feces. This small amount of feces could contain as many as 200 trillion rotavirus cells, 20 billion Shigella bacteria, and 100,000 parasitic worm eggs.
In places without safe sanitation, there is much more than one small beaker ’ s worth in the environment. These and other pathogens cause diseases like diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid that kill nearly 500,000 children under the age of five every year.
Unsafe sanitation also puts a huge economic burden on countries that can least afford it. Globally, it costs an estimated $223 billion a year in the form of higher health costs and lost productivity and wages.
And the problem will get worse if we don ’ t do something about it. Population growth, urbanization, and water scarcity over the next few decades will make it even more difficult for cities in Africa and Asia — cities that are already struggling with inadequate sanitation systems — to break the cycle of disease and poverty associated with unsafe sanitation.
I became interested in sanitation about a decade ago when I stopped working full time at Microsoft, and Melinda and I began traveling more frequently to poor countries.
We visited communities where children were playing in lanes filled with human waste, where pit latrines were emptied by hand, where the stench of community toilets was so bad that people didn ’ t want to use them, and where families drank water contaminated with human waste.
This was a dimension of poverty we hadn ’ t seen before, and it motivated us to try to do something about it. It wasn ’ t just the degradation and suffering that people face every day doing something that ’ s essential and natural for all human beings. It was also because so much of what Melinda and I seek to achieve in saving and improving lives can ’ t be accomplished unless people everywhere have safe sanitation.
It became clear to us that if the world was going to continue making progress against the diseases of poverty, we ’ d have to create a new way of looking at — and eventually solving — the global sanitation crisis.
In 2009, I posed a question to a group of scientists and engineers: was it possible to leapfrog the long-accepted"gold standard"of sanitation: flush toilets, sewers, and treatment plants?
Could we come up with a more affordable approach that could kill pathogens and keep pace with the needs of fast-growing urban areas — without requiring sewer infrastructure or reliance on scarce water resources or continuous electricity to operate?
Some people were skeptical that this was achievable. I get it. it ’ s hard to envision a totally different way of doing something that is so deeply rooted; that just feels like"the way things are."
Early in my own life and career, there was a time when"the way things were"in computing was a big mainframe computer that only large corporations and governments could afford. Some of us had another idea. We dreamed about personal computers that anyone could use. A lot of people told us we were crazy. But we believed in it and found other people who shared our vision. Now, people can ’ t imagine the world the way it was back in the day of the mainframe.
I believe it is possible to achieve something like this in sanitation, and that ’ s why we have invested more than $200 million over the last seven years working with partners to develop a new generation of non-sewered sanitation technologies.
There were two main things we knew we had to accomplish. The first was to make it easier and cheaper to effectively manage fecal sludge across the sanitation service chain.
This diagram shows the scale of this problem. In the Global South, 62% of fecal sludge is not safely managed. In some cities, the problem is much worse. In one city in South Asia, 97% of human waste is untreated. And many countries are not yet even reporting how much of their waste is getting treated.
Some of the untreated human waste is in unlined pit latrines that contaminates groundwater around people ’ s homes. Some is collected manually, or by trucks, and is dumped into nearby fields or bodies of water. And some is collected in sewers but never gets treated. The point is that we are far from the goal the world set in 2015 of everyone using a safely-managed toilet.
To help address this problem, we worked with partners to develop a small-scale treatment plant to process fecal sludge and biosolids from pit latrines, septic tanks, and sewers. The self-powered technology — which can be located almost anywhere — is called the Omni-Processor. It takes in human waste, kills dangerous pathogens, and converts the resulting materials into products with potential commercial value — like clean water, electricity, and fertilizer.
The second challenge was to invent a pathogen-killing toilet that is also self-contained — with a tiny treatment plant built in. We call this the Reinvented Toilet, which is actually a collection of innovative technologies that use different approaches to break down human waste and destroy germs — leaving behind clean water and solids that can be used as fertilizer...or that can be disposed of safely outdoors without further treatment.
The initial demand for the Reinvented Toilet will be in places like schools, apartment buildings, and community toilet facilities.
As adoption of these multi-unit toilets increases — and the cost continues to drop — a new category of reinvented toilets will become available for use in people ’ s homes — in developing countries where people have limited resources and in developed countries for people who want or need an off-grid household toilet.
Let me show you one example of what the reinvented toilet could look like for household use — designed by the Swiss engineering firm, Helbling.
In addition, partners have made great progress developing other breakthrough technologies to control malodors, separate urine from solids, manage menstrual hygiene, and treat liquids.
I have to say, a decade ago I never imagined that I ’ d know so much about poop. And I definitely never thought that Melinda would have to tell me to stop talking about toilets and fecal sludge at the dinner table.
But I ’ m quite enthusiastic about what has been accomplished in just seven years. This expo showcases, for the first time, radically new and pilot-tested approaches to sanitation that will provide effective alternatives for collecting, managing, and treating human waste. The technologies you ’ ll see here are the most significant advances in sanitation in nearly 200 years.
None of this would have been possible without an exceptional worldwide team of engineers, scientists, companies, and universities committed to reinventing the urban sanitation system.
It ’ s exciting that solving the problem of unsafe sanitation will also create a new multi-billion-dollar business opportunity.
One of the things we ’ re able to do as a foundation is invest in the early stage R&D needed to create a path forward for the private sector to commercialize technologies and products that also help us achieve our goals. It ’ s a real win-win.
Consider just the new generation of reinvented toilets. We estimate that by 2030, this will be a $6 billion a year global business opportunity. If you add the Omni-Processor and related products and services, the market potential for decentralized sanitation solutions is likely much larger.
Like all transformative technologies, the next step is to scale these advances in collaboration with all of you.
Today, I ’ m pleased to say that a growing number of companies are ready to take orders for Reinvented Toilets and for the Omni-Processor. Companies like Clear, Eco-San, SCG Chemicals, and Eram Scientific Solutions are announcing their first reinvented toilet products. And CRRC, Sedron Technologies, Ankur Scientific, and Tide Technocrats are announcing their Omni-Processors.
Other commercial partners will be announcing the availability of products based on Firmenich ’ s innovative solution for malodor control.
In total, more than 20 companies are business-ready with innovative, non-sewered sanitation products. And I understand that Lixil, a new partner, will be telling us more about their involvement later this morning. This is the first wave of new sanitation solutions and technologies — with more to come.
But it ’ s not enough for companies to be interested in making and selling new products. It ’ s also important for national and local governments to create an enabling environment with policies and regulations that encourage innovative sanitation service models, including with the private sector.
I ’ m encouraged by the leadership of a growing number of countries that are embracing a smart approach to safe sanitation, such as India, South Africa, Senegal, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
China ’ s Toilet Revolution and its action plan for accelerating progress on safe sanitation underscores its potential as a launch market for non-sewered sanitation solutions. It ’ s notable that three of the partners making announcements here — Clear, Ecosan, and CRRC – are based in China. This highlights China ’ s interest in commercialization of off-grid sanitation solutions to meet not only the demands of China ’ s domestic market but also the needs of a global market ready for change.
We look forward to China adopting a high-level standard [ ISO30500 ] for the non-sewered sanitation industry, which will further accelerate its leadership of a new commercial sanitation sector.
There is also positive momentum among finance and development institutions. The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the African Development Bank are announcingcommitments with the potential to unlock $2.5 billion in financing for City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation projects.
These commitments will help provide people in all parts of a city — including the poorest neighborhoods — with safely-managed sanitation services. And the banks ’ pledges could help accelerate adoption of off-grid sanitation solutions — like the ones exhibited here — in low- and middle-income countries.
In addition, UNICEF and the French Development Agency will announce new strategies and commitments to accelerate deployment of innovative sanitation solutions. This is all great news.
We try to be thoughtful about the role of philanthropy — and one of the things we ’ re best placed to do is lower barriers and risk for the private sector and for governments to adopt new solutions to solve big problems.
That ’ s what we ’ ve tried to do with our investment so far in sanitation — so others can further develop, pilot, market, and sell these new solutions. We ’ re committed to supporting these efforts with an additional $200 million for continued R&D to help bring down the costs of new products for the poor, and to support market development in regions where new, non-sewered sanitation solutions can have the greatest impact.
Today, we are on the cusp of a sanitation revolution. It ’ s no longer a question of if we can do it. It ’ s a question of how quickly this new category of off-grid solutions will scale. We don ’ t know exactly how long that will take, but we do know it can ’ t happen fast enough.
Thank you.
【來(lái)源：IT之家】
