New Tech Helps Improve Sanitation in Jakarta Slums

In Indonesia 50,000 people die every year as a result of poor sanitation, most of them being in slums like the one above. It's understandable since none of the waste is taken out of the slum, so it either just stays where it was deposited, gets washed into a water supply, or someone steps in it and tracks it all over. Not a good situation to be in, but because these people are so poor there is little they can do about it on their own.

With all this in mind Mercy Corps started a program called RW Siaga++ ("neighborhood alert") with the goal of providing sanitation to the millions that live without it in the Jakarta slums. They developed two products to do this: the custom sludge cart, and improved septic tanks.