Posted December 8, 2016 | by Glenn | in Education, Tech

Waterless Toilets

Waterless toilets

If you are a regular reader of our blog, you will know that I love reading and sharing all the new gadgets and tech advancments in plumbing. This month I came across something interesting – water-less toilets.

According to the report from Business Insider¹, the Nano Membrane toilet has received further funding to assist with prototype development and field testing in Africa.

The Nano Membrane toilet has been designed to service a household of up to 10- people at very low cost. It can store the solid waste (while eliminating any odour) and extract the water. Each week the waste and water will be removed by a technician and the water is clean so it can be re-used in the home or to water the garden. The solid waste is also re-used to eventually create energy for the town.

Living in Australia, we often forget that so many people in the world still lack basic access to sanitized environments and clean drinking water. This exposes millions of people to risk of death from sanitary-related illness and diseases. For example, “unsafe drinking water, inadequate availability of water for hygiene, and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to about 88% of deaths from diarrheal diseases.”² Further, almost 2200 children under the age of 5 die every day as a results of diarrheal diseases.²

Given these terrible statistics it is hard not to be in awe of the great advancements that are being made in the area of plumbing. Further, given water is a scares resource³ – I think it will only be a matter of time before inventions such as these become mainstream in Australia too.

Remember, we can all do our bit to save water. You can check out some easy tips and hints here in one of my early posts!