On his blog, Gates Notes,
the former Microsoft CEO describes watching piles of feces being processed
through a machine, boiled, treated, and then result in a glass of drinking
water that he personally drank. The whole process is said to have taken about
five minutes.
Water supplies in many
poor countries are often contaminated with waste, causing diseases that kill
700,000 children each year and hurt many others. The blog is promoting the
Omniprocessor, a Gates Foundation technology that is set to begin a pilot
project soon in Dakar, Senegal. It uses a steam engine to make its power needs
efficient enough to fuel itself, and even generates extra electricity along
with the by-products of drinking water and ash. The processor also has a system
of sensors that will allow its creators to help control it from afar during the
pilot program.
"Our goal is to
make the processors cheap enough that entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income
countries will want to invest in them and then start profitable waste-treatment
businesses," Gates said. "The processor wouldn’t just keep human
waste out of the drinking water; it would turn waste into a commodity with real
value in the marketplace. It’s the ultimate example of that old expression: one
man’s trash is another man’s treasure."
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment