New toilet designed offers hope for cleaner water

A million and a half children around the world die from diarrhea each year. That's more kids dying from diarrhea than HIV infection and malaria combined.

It's a stark statistic to reckon with, yet diarrhea and fecal-borne illnesses remain one of the largest public health problems in developing nations. For decades, scientists have focused on water - access, quality, cleanliness - as the way to prevent diarrhea illnesses, but scientists in the Research Triangle say that way of thinking looks at the problem all wrong.

"You've got to build a better toilet," said Brian Stoner, an investigator at RTI, in Durham. "You can have perfectly clean water, but without sanitation, sludge and waste ends up near kids." Stoner is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University.

Stonerand team members from RTI, N.C. State and Duke University have spent the last 18 months designing that toilet. As the recipient of a Gates Foundation challenge, Stoner and his colleagues have rethought toilet sanitation, making a prototype that is suitable for use in places with no municipal waste stream, electricity or access to water.

"There's 2.5 billion people in the world without access to effective sanitation," Stoner said. "I'm optimistic about this work."

This month, they're taking their prototype to Delhi, India, where their lab model will be part of a toilet fair attended by Delhi politicians and investors. For Stoner, a material scientist who's worked in water sanitation, the trip will be a jumping-off point to test his toilet in the field.

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Taxonomy

• Diarrhea
• Sanitation
• Water & Sanitation