Bill Gates drinks cup of water that used to be human poop (VIDEO)

RT.com, January 07, 2015

Screenshot from YouTube user thegatesnotes

Billionaire activist Bill Gates is backing an innovation in water filtration that turns human poop into drinking water. The OmniProcessor could bring clean water to millions of people and help solve the problem of debilitating diseases.

The OmniProcessor, designed and built by Seattle engineering firm Janicki Bioenergy, burns human waste to produce electricity and water. The processor powers itself through the use of a steam engine and does not emit an odor. The machine could handle 14 tons of waste from 100,000 people, producing up to 86,000 liters of drinkable water a day, and net 250 kw of electricity.

At a demonstration of the OmniProcessor shown on GatesNotes, a smiling Bill Gates drank water from the machine, which was previously untreated sewage.

“It’s water,” said Gates in the video.

He wrote on his blog: "The water tasted as good as any I’ve had out of a bottle. And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It’s that safe."

Gates said that 2.5 billion people – or 40 percent of the global population – have no access to safe sanitation, and many people use facilities that do not safely dispose of human waste. About 1.5 million children die every year from contaminated food and water, and half of all patients in hospitals are there because of problems with water and sanitation. It is extremely costly to try and create sewage infrastructure in cities and towns that already exist, so Gates thinks the low cost water treatment machine could be revolutionary.

Screenshot from YouTube user thegatesnotes

“If you can get thousands of these things out there, then you’ve ensured the people really will grow up in a healthy way,” Gates told Wired. “They’ll live much higher quality lives. You will save a lot of lives. And you’ll have local entrepreneurs who are maintaining these things.”

The OmniProcessor, which costs $1.5 million, will undergo a pilot launch in Dakar, Senegal later this year.

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"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”

Your septic tank: Could it be a ticking time bomb for disease?

The Jakarta Post

Checking where your dinner ends up is definitely a dirty job. But experts have a name for septic tanks which have had their maintenance neglected: a time bomb.

Association of Indonesian Sanitation Technology Experts chairman Sofyan Iskandar said household water consumption contributes strongly to the quality of raw water.

Seeping liquid waste from poorly maintained or built septic tanks severely pollutes underground water, he said.

"Many housing developers ignore regulations on septic tanks since they know that homeowners won't check them thoroughly. Even if they build a septic tank, it won't have a cement floor. House owners should be worried if after two years they don't have to empty the septic tank," he said.

Sofyan, also a member of the government-sanctioned body Water Supply and Sanitation Policy Formulation and Action Planning (Waspola), warned improperly installed septic tanks can cause waterborne diseases, such as diarrhea or, worse, cholera.

"About 90 percent of groundwater in Jakarta is not good for consumption and almost half of the population suffers from diarrhea once in a while. The disease inflicts a high infant mortality rate. It's not without reason we call the condition septic tanks are in a time bomb," he said, quoting studies by Waspola, in cooperation of the National Development Planning Board, AusAid and the World Bank.

Worse still, a lack of incentives to bring septic waste to city processing installations has meant many of those cleaning septic tanks have simply dumped the waste into rivers.

"There should be monitoring of septic tank maintenance by the Public Works Agency, the Environment Management Body and the Industry and Trade Agency that issues licenses to (septic tank) businesses," Sofyan said.

Guy Hutton from the World Bank's Water Sanitation Program calculated that Jakarta residents each spend on average US$12 per month on treating diarrhea.

According to Sofyan, that figure far outstrips the cost of building a septic tank, which comes to around $260 for a standard tank or up to $360 per household for a community tank that could accommodate 200 people.

The community septic tank, he added, was the best temporary solution for managing black water, in light of the fact that the Jakarta administration could not afford a proper sewerage system.

"Besides budget constraints, it's not easy to make residents move their toilets from the back of the house to the front door. Indeed, it's households that are the face of this city."

-- Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak

Household tips for cleaning up our city

The Jakarta Post

Households are the cornerstone of our city. How they manage their waste in turn affects city sanitation. In the last of three guides, The Jakarta Post's Adianto P. Simamora, Anissa S. Febrina and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak provide tips on how households can keep the city clean.

Waste management

- Start sorting your own garbage, provide two separate bins for organic and non-organic waste.

- To avoid scavengers creating mess, observe your garbage man's schedule and take out your already sorted garbage when he comes around.

Septic tank

- Make sure your septic tank is located at least 10 meters from wells or water pumps. - For a family of five, the standard size of your septic tank should be no less than one cubic meter. - Empty your septic tank every two years. - To ensure that liquid waste doesn't mix with groundwater, build a seepage pit.

Sources: Indonesian Architects Association, BPPT, WWF Indonesia Power Switch campaign, www.epa.gov, Drinking Water and Sanitation Working Group, Waspola, Public Works Ministry, various sources.