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A robot developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras to help eliminate <keyword id="6390598" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="manual-scavenging" source="Orion">manual scavenging</keyword> in India, is all set for field deployment, the institute said on Thursday.<br /><br />Ten units of the robot named '<keyword id="12828292" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="homosep" source="Orion">HomoSEP</keyword>' will be first deployed across Tamil Nadu, and later in Gujarat and Maharashtra.<br /><br />"The septic tank is a poisonous environment, filled with semi-solid and semi-fluid human faecal material that make up about two-thirds of the tank. Hundreds of deaths are reported every year across India, due to manual scavenging in septic tanks despite bans and prohibitory orders," said Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal, from Department of Mechanical Engineering, <keyword id="6356755" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="iit-madras" source="Orion">IIT Madras</keyword>, in a statement.<br /><br />HomoSEP was first developed in 2019 as a final year Masters' project by Divanshu Kumar under the guidance of Prof. Rajagopal.<br /><br />Despite the pandemic-related difficulties over the next couple of years, the IIT Madras researchers collaborated with an IIT Madras-incubated start-up Solinas Integrity Private Limited (now headed by Kumar) to further develop HomoSEP.<br /><br />The path-breaking project was also supported first by several CSR donors over the years.<br /><br />The HomoSEP Robot can homogenise the hard sludge in septic tanks through custom-developed rotary blade mechanism and pump the tank slurry using an integrated suction mechanism.<br /><br />Sanitation workers will be able to operate the HomoSEP on their own, after being provided with the relevant training and appropriate guidance along with necessary safety measures, both of which our team is working on right now. Safety plays a vital role in this whole procedure, starting with the design of HomoSEP itself.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO: </strong><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/meesho-recorded-5-35-million-orders-during-the-one-day-sale/articleshow/92100754.cms">India's youngest ecommerce giant received more than 60 orders every second during its one-day sale</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/mobikwik-plans-to-raise-100-million-as-ipo-delayed/articleshow/92099731.cms">Mobikwik looks to raise $100 million as it delays IPO plans, founder says the ‘markets are not ready’</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/zomato-can-show-ebitda-profitability-in-the-next-three-years-but-only-on-one-condition/articleshow/92095600.cms">Zomato’s path to profitability in the next three years requires two things, say analysts</a>

IIT Madras to deploy robot to clean septic tanks in Tamil Nadu and end manual scavenging

<ul><li><strong>Although banned in the 1990s, manual cleaning of <keyword id="79680" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sewers">sewers</keyword> continues till date.</strong></li><li><strong>To help eradicate this, the Modi government has announced that it is working with urban local bodies to use technology to clean sewer systems.</strong></li><li><strong>Further, the government also announced ₹85,000 crore provision for the upliftment of scheduled caste and other backward classes, along with ₹53,700 crore for scheduled tribes.</strong></li></ul>Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that there will be no manual cleaning of sewers anymore. The government has identified suitable technologies and equipment for this task, and that it is working with local bodies for the adoption of these technologies.<br /><br />“Our government is determined that there shall be no manual cleaning of sewer systems and septic tanks. Suitable technologies for such tasks have been identified by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs,” the Finance Minister said.<br /><br />To make sure this policy is carried out effectively, she said that the ministry is “working with urban local bodies for the adoption of these technologies”. She further announced that the policy will be taken to its “logical conclusion” through legislative and institutional changes.<br /><br />Manual cleaning of sewer systems and septic tanks is a dangerous task and has claimed hundreds of lives. According to data provided by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, 123 workers were <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/official-data-shows-one-manual-scavenging-death-every-five-days-5361531/">reported</a> to have died between January 2017 and September 2018.<br /><br />The job of <keyword id="6390598" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="manual-scavenging">manual scavenging</keyword> has historically been undertaken by the <keyword id="45041" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="dalit">Dalit</keyword> community in India, which brings out the social inequalities prevalent in the country. Even though the Indian government outlawed the practice in the 1990s, it continues to happen even in 2020.<br /><br />Sitharaman also announced a provision of ₹85,000 crore for 2020-21 for the upliftment of scheduled castes and other backward classes. Similarly, the scheduled tribe community gets a provision of ₹53,700 crore.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/union-budget-2020-live-updates-news-and-highlights/liveblog/73824572.cms"><strong>Check live Budget 2020 updates here</strong></a><br />

“There will be no manual cleaning of sewers anymore,” announces Nirmala Sitharaman

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Suffolk County, Long Island's heavy reliance on septic tanks is contaminating its groundwater.</li><li>It's also restricting the construction of dense housing as home prices and rents soar.</li></ul><p>When you flush the toilet, you probably don't consider where its contents go. </p><p>The people of Suffolk County, Long Island, need to start considering it. That’s because the county — which encompasses the eastern portion of the island, including the Hamptons — relies overwhelmingly on septic tanks and cesspools, rather than a public sewer system, and those outdated systems are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.savethesound.org/2023/07/14/suffolk-county-faces-crossroads-moment-for-clean-water/#:~:text=In%20the%20first%20paragraph%20of,problem%3A%20%E2%80%9CNitrogen%2C%20which%20primarily"><u>contaminating its groundwater aquifers</u></a>.</p><p>And the sewer issue is also making another, much more politicized, problem worse: housing affordability.</p><p>Like most of the suburbs surrounding New York City, Suffolk County is suffering from a major shortage of homes. The county makes it illegal to build anything but single-family homes in the vast majority of its residential neighborhoods, keeping supply low and prices inflated. Its inadequate sewer system makes it difficult or impossible to build denser housing in much the same way that its restrictive zoning laws do.</p><p>Some housing advocates believe local officials are using the county's sewer issues as an excuse to prevent new and denser housing construction. Hunter Gross, president of a nonprofit pro-housing group in the town of Huntington on the county’s western edge, said local elected officials hide behind wastewater issues in order to dodge the housing debate.</p><p>“They realize that if they do build the needed sewer system, then they would have to build the needed housing,” Gross said.</p><h2><strong>No upzoning without sewers — and vice versa</strong></h2><p>Long Island has public sewer lines, on-site sewage treatment plants, and individual septic tanks. But about 75% of Suffolk County properties rely on outdated septic systems that don’t remove nitrogen from the water, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/suffolk-sewer-tax-pqshdpq1"><u>Newsday reported</u></a>. Excess nitrogen in the water supply — which also comes from fertilizer runoff — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/nitrogen-and-water#:~:text=Too%20much%20nitrogen%2C%20as%20nitrate,oxygen%20transport%20in%20the%20bloodstream.">can be dangerous to consume</a> and disrupts ecological systems, causing harmful phenomena like algae blooms that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/new-york/stories-in-new-york/long-island-water-quality/what-is-nitrogen-pollution-/">poison wildlife, plants, and people</a>.</p><p>The county's traditional septic systems and cesspits are designed to allow treated sewage to safely seep into the ground soil, but when tanks aren't regularly emptied, the water table is high, or the system floods, untreated sewage pollutes nearby water.</p><p>The most common reason local elected officials cite for not upgrading their wastewater management is cost. Even in a county where the median household income is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/suffolkcountynewyork/PST045223">almost $50,000 more</a> than the national average, policymakers say they simply can’t afford it. Last summer, the Republican members of the county’s legislature <a target="_blank" href="https://www.eastendbeacon.com/suffolk-legislature-doesnt-act-on-water-quality-referendum/"><u>squashed an effort</u></a> to slightly increase the county’s sales tax to pay for sewer upgrades.</p><p>But there's still hope for the effort. Earlier this month, Suffolk County’s recently elected executive, Ed Romaine, backed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/suffolk-sewer-tax-crwu1gkt?utm_source=pocket_saves">a similar measure</a> raising the sales tax to fund the sewer system and individual septic tanks. In December, New York Governor Kathy Hochul <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/hochul-sewer-water-contamination-xj3qxmd3"><u>announced</u></a> she'll send $59 million to Long Island to deal with water contamination and sewer upgrades.</p><p>Romaine, a Republican, made housing affordability central to his agenda while campaigning and says he needs more state and federal funding to pay for the sewer and other infrastructure projects.</p><p>“The governor has said she wants to see more housing on Long Island. Great, governor, you’ve got to give us money for sewage because the type of housing you want, we can't build,” he said, adding that he supported President Joe Biden’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-signs-infrastructure-law-social-spending-plan-struggles-2021-11"><u>bipartisan infrastructure bill</u></a>. “How about some of that money? Why should Long Island get shortchanged?”</p><p>Edmund Smyth, the town supervisor of Huntington, Suffolk County, said he’d like to see the federal government commit billions of dollars to expanding and upgrading sewer lines and treatment plants across the US to protect the water supply and boost development.</p><p>“If the governor's plan requires the town to adopt certain housing policies, and that doesn't come with a very large infrastructure check along with it,” Smyth said, “there's nothing to talk about.”</p><h2>Long Islanders can't afford to live where they grew up</h2><p>Anti-development NIMBYism is rampant across Long Island, and its eastern half is no exception. Suffolk County has allowed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-15/nassau-county-in-new-york-and-florida-show-importance-of-housing-costs?embedded-checkout=true"><u>less new housing to be built</u></a> over the last 10 years than almost any other county in the US. It also has a higher proportion of single-family homes than nearly any other county — more than 80% of its homes are detached, single-family houses.</p><p>Last year, Long Island public officials led the charge against Gov. Kathy Hochul’s effort to boost housing construction around transit hubs, end single-family zoning, and other measures to encourage development, particularly in the New York City suburbs. Last summer, opponents of allowing accessory dwelling units, like basement apartments, in Huntington <a target="_blank" href="https://nysfocus.com/2023/07/27/huntington-long-island-housing-new-york"><u>warned against</u></a> “changing the complexion of this beautiful community” and bringing in “migrants, pedophiles, or criminals.”</p><p>But many residents, including homeowners who’ve benefited from soaring home values, are feeling the pain of the housing affordability crisis and want change. Businesses are <a target="_blank" href="https://suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2022/03/the-north-forks-affordable-housing-crisis-has-reached-new-extremes/">struggling to attract workers</a>, who can’t find decent housing. Baby boomers <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/opinion/long-island-housing.html">are concerned</a> their own children and grandchildren can’t afford to live in the communities they grew up in.</p><p>“We're creating a lot of jobs here, but that's not going to continue if we don't have places to live for the people who have those jobs,” said Ian Wilder, executive director of the nonprofit group Long Island Housing Services. “The only thing we're creating is a market in illegal and, some of it, dangerous housing because people have no choice about where to live.”</p><h2><strong>Sewers tie into a long history of exclusionary housing policy</strong></h2><p>Like many similar suburban regions, Long Island has a long history of enforcing racial segregation through housing policies. Levittown, the famous master-planned 1950s suburb designed for WWII veterans, <a target="_blank" href="https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/levittown-demographics-real-estate/#:~:text=Levittown's%20restrictive%20racial%20covenant%20read,domestic%20servants%20shall%20be%20permitted.%E2%80%9D">excluded Black residents</a>. In 1988, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/08/nyregion/li-town-focus-of-housing-bias-ruling-reflects-many-in-the-new-york-region.html"><u>Supreme Court found</u></a> in a landmark case that the town of Huntington perpetuated racial discrimination with zoning laws that prohibited multi-family housing construction in largely white neighborhoods. </p><p>While civil rights laws have since changed, the county is still one of the most segregated in the US. In 2019, Newsday published <a target="_blank" href="https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/real-estate-agents-investigation/#open-paywall-message"><u>a three-year investigation</u></a> finding that residential real estate brokers and agents regularly discriminated against Black, Hispanic, and Asian clients.   </p><p>Infrastructure is just as key to expanding the housing stock as land-use laws are. Sewers and zoning are “two sides of the same coin,” said Nathan Cummings, a law clerk who <a target="_blank" href="https://yalelawandpolicy.org/sites/default/files/YLPR/4_cummings_pe_11.28.22.pdf"><u>published a paper</u></a> in the Yale Law &amp; Policy Review in 2022 on wastewater treatment and urban development. You can’t change land-use laws to allow for more density when the sewer capacity isn’t there, and you can’t build out the sewer system when the land-use laws don’t allow for more density.</p><p>“It's very easy for local policymakers to fall into a trap where they say we can't upzone because we don't have infrastructure and we can’t build infrastructure because our zoning doesn't permit anything above a certain level of development,” Cummings said. “If you want to build more densely, it's a two-step process where you do both and ultimately what it takes is the political will.”</p><p>The connection between anti-sewer and anti-housing activism isn’t limited to Long Island. Similar communities, like Old Lyme, Connecticut, have been accused of <a target="_blank" href="https://insideinvestigator.org/everything-flows-downhill/"><u>blocking wastewater projects</u></a> in order to stymie denser housing construction and prevent lower-income people or people of color from moving into a community.</p><p>Alarm bells go off for Cummings in cases where a community’s water is being contaminated by waste and it refuses both to build out its sewer system or install an alternative wastewater treatment system. </p><p>“If you don't want either of those things, even as your groundwater is getting polluted, and you're having to pay the upkeep cost for your septic system, it just starts to look a little bit less rational,” he said.</p><h2></h2>

A fight over sewage is preventing Long Island from solving its crippling housing crisis

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Katie and David Wolford fell in love with a hoarder house in their neighborhood in 2020.</li><li>They finally bought the house in August, and they plan to refurbish the 1940s property.</li></ul><p>A yearslong and $640,000 adventure all started with a neighborhood walk.</p><p>Katie and David Wolford told Insider that they turned to neighborhood strolls in Portland, Oregon, to fill time during the pandemic. </p><p>On one of their first walks, they instantly fell in love with a home at the end of a cul-de-sac.</p><h2>The house that caught their eye stood out in a sea of clean, modern homes</h2><p>From what they could see from the sidewalk, the <a href="https://www.insider.com/fall-things-interior-decorator-needs-to-have-in-home-2023-9">home</a>, which they later learned was built in the 1940s, had art-deco details and impressive brickwork.</p><p>"It was the worst home in the best neighborhood," Katie said.</p><p>Through the windows, they could see mountains of furniture, belongings, and trash piled up inside. Mold crawled up the home's garage, and the backyard was overgrown so much that "it looked like it was being pulled into the forest," Katie said.</p><p>To most people, it was a nightmare.</p><div type="image" title="A house that is falling apart sits in a lot filled with items." height="1535" width="2047" msid="104239961" hostid="261" sizebytes="388726"></div><p>But to Katie, 33, and David, 34, it was their future. Katie said they immediately started picturing the rest of their lives in the space. </p><p>Nearly three years later, they're finally starting that journey. </p><p>They purchased the home in August. Now, they're clearing it out, recording the journey on their TikTok account <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wolford_dreamhouse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DK Dreamhouse</a>, and making it livable in just six months.</p><h2>Buying the home was the couple's first challenge</h2><p>While Katie and David could visualize their lives in the home, they needed to buy it first.</p><p>In 2020, the home wasn't for sale, so Katie said she called in a realtor friend, who helped the couple track down the owner. With that information, they sent him a letter.</p><p>"We drafted a letter in 2020 to the homeowners, but we had nothing to offer," Katie said.</p><p>They didn't get a response, and it became a waiting game for the couple — until one day this summer. Katie was on a walk when she spotted a dumpster outside the home. </p><p>"It was go time," Katie said. </p><p>Luckily, the couple now had the finances from other home renovations and rentals to buy the house. Katie said she called her realtor friend again, and they delivered another letter. </p><p>"There was just no world at this point, three years in the making, where we did not get that house," Katie said.</p><p>They didn't get a response, so they sent another letter to their front door. Then another. </p><p>"She would go every day to try and catch somebody up there because clearly something was happening," Katie said.</p><p>Finally, the friend ran into the owner and convinced him to give the couple a tour. After years of imagining the interior, the couple finally stepped inside.</p><div type="image" title="A side-by-side of an archway into a living room and an entryway." height="1080" width="1440" msid="104239962" hostid="261" sizebytes="111742"></div><p>"The smell and the sight were really things that most people wouldn't even consider," Katie said. "But we walked in, and it was better than we could even imagine."</p><p>The home had an open layout, curved walls, arched entryways, parquet floors, massive windows, and details they knew they'd never find in another house.</p><p>So they purchased it for $640,000.</p><h2>Katie and David have to empty the home before they can start renovations</h2><div type="image" title="The couple has removed dumpsters-worth of belongings from the previous owners." height="897" width="1196" msid="104239963" hostid="261" sizebytes="123546"></div><p>Katie said she and David initially thought they'd have to gut the entire home, reconfigure spaces, and completely redesign the interior. </p><p>After seeing its details, and learning that the bones of the house were solid, they're planning a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-chip-joanna-gaines-selling-magnolia-house-for-1-million-2023-9">renovation instead</a>.</p><p>As Katie and David shared on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wolford_dreamhouse/video/7278475947014114606" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok</a>, the house was first owned in 1942 by a man who owned a lighting fixture store, so it's filled with one-of-a-kind, vintage lighting pieces, which the Wolfords hope to restore as they renovate the space.</p><p>Then in the 1970s, a neurologist purchased the home, and a few years later, she married an engineer, who moved into the space with his children. Over the years, the family developed a <a href="https://www.insider.com/raised-by-hoarders-makes-me-question-ability-clean-my-house-2022-5">hoarding problem</a>, slowly filling their home with the enormous collection of items Katie and David found in the house when they bought it.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.insider.com/mom-was-a-hoarder-i-keep-my-house-clean-2022-5">hoarding</a> got so bad that the previous owners cut holes into the walls to create more space for storage, Katie told Insider. </p> <p>"I think it's just really important that every neighbor that we met loved them so much," Katie said of the former owners of the home. "These were people that lived really full lives, and the state of their house, that's really minor when you hold it up to someone's whole life."</p><p>Now that Katie and David own the house, their first task is <a href="https://www.insider.com/interior-designer-shares-items-to-get-rid-of-from-home-now">getting all the belongings out</a>. </p><p>The previous owner's son said he had already removed two homes' worth of belongings before Katie and David purchased it, but Katie estimates that there are still two homes' worth left. </p><p>"We just keep finding more and more stuff," Katie said. </p><p>In the backyard, bushes of blackberries disguised sheds they didn't know existed, which were also full of belongings.</p><p>Underneath more bushes were old refrigerators, tractors, a washer and dryer set, and playground sets — all items the Wolfords plan to get rid of.</p><div type="image" title="A side-by-side of a overgrown yard filled with junk." height="1080" width="1440" msid="104239965" hostid="261" sizebytes="462684"></div><p>"With all that stuff, you can't really see what is actually built into the house," Katie said. "So we keep finding little spaces that we didn't know about."</p><p>Katie said the task has been impossible for the couple to do by themselves, especially with the home's smell.</p><p>The water has been shut off for the last few months, but workers continued to use the bathroom. Combine full toilets with a dog and grease smell from the previous owners and Katie said it's impossible to spend long periods of time inside the house.</p><p>So they've hired people to sort the belongings into piles for donations and trash.</p><p>Each day, as more and more items are removed, Katie said the smell is more bearable. </p><p>"I shudder even thinking about it," Katie said. "Every day it's a whole level less smelly, which is so encouraging."</p><h2>Katie and David are aiming to make the home livable in just 6 months</h2><p>Although the house needs a lot of TLC, Katie and David are hoping to move into it in less than a year.</p><p>The couple said that because the house was in such disrepair, banks wouldn't issue them a loan on the property, so they needed to purchase it with cash. They said they ended up taking out a fix-and-flip loan, which gave them enough money to buy and renovate the house.</p><p>Typically, these loans are repaid during a sale, but since Katie and David plan to make the house their home, their goal is to make it livable in just six months and refinance the house to pay off the loan.</p><p>"We'll move in and start the real restoration work on the home," Katie said.</p><div type="image" title="A couple sits in lawn chairs in their front yard." height="1498" width="1998" msid="104239967" hostid="261" sizebytes="528616"></div><p>For now, the couple is working on getting it in livable shape, which means tackling tasks like moving it off of a septic tank and onto the city's sewer lines. The exterior paint is from 1940 and tested for high levels of lead, so they're stripping and repainting the entire house. And they have to get a whole new roof.</p><p>There are interior tasks that also need to be done in that time frame, Katie explained. The previous owners had built an upstairs sunroom, which caused major water damage. Now, the second-floor ceiling needs to be replaced, as does part of the flooring that's water-damaged. </p><p>Katie and David also won't know the extent of the renovations required until the house has been fully emptied.</p><p>"Since it was so full of stuff, every layer you remove, we have to reassess what's going on," Katie said.</p><p>They don't know, for example, what's under the floorboards. So there are likely parts of the home they haven't even spotted yet that will need fixing.  </p><div type="image" title="A side-by-side of a house with a hole in the ceiling and a room filled with clutter." height="1080" width="1440" msid="104239970" hostid="261" sizebytes="148138"></div><p>For many of these tasks, the couple has hired professionals. But once the structural things are completed, Katie and David can "get in there and get our hands dirty and start really doing our projects."</p><p>"He has an engineering brain, and I have a very creative brain," Katie said of David. "Together with YouTube and really talented friends, who have been really patient and teaching us things, we've learned that we can now feel super confident with any sort of home project."</p><p>Ultimately, the couple can't wait to spend their lives in the home they spent the last three years envisioning. </p><p>"I cannot even express how good it feels. We feel so connected to this house," Katie said. "Now we're just trying to find time to sleep."</p>

A couple bought a 1940s house owned by a family of hoarders. They have 6 months to empty it and make it livable.

<ul><li><strong>For attaining over 6% GDP growth, a public investment led budget was needed this year. <br /><br /></strong></li><li><strong>This budget focuses on increased spending in infrastructure, which is likely to have a multiplier effect.<br /><br /></strong></li><li><strong>The budget also announced multiple forward-looking initiatives for improving the infrastructure sector.</strong> <br /></li></ul>India intends to be a 5 trillion-dollar economy in the next few years. Infrastructure is one of the key catalysts for achieving this objective. Government of India launched the National Infrastructure Pipeline for the period FY 20–25 for supporting development of road, airport, port, urban, electricity, railways, among others. <br /><br />Given the importance of infrastructure sector, in budget FY21–22 Government of India announced multiple initiatives including creation of a new Development Finance Institution for extending long tenure debt financing at reasonable rates and announced potential projects for monetization through a National Monetization Pipeline besides increasing capital expenditure (Source: Budget FY2021–22). <br /><br />In Budget 2022–23, initiatives to further strengthen the infrastructure sector were undertaken including significant increase in infrastructure capital expenditure, new infrastructure development programmes, formation of a high-level committee for urban planning among others (Source: Budget FY2022–23). <br /><br />Continuing with the focus of creating world-class infrastructure, the current Budget has allocated substantial funds for capital expenditure for developing infrastructure. The Government has committed an outlay of ₹10 lakh crore during 2023-24 towards infrastructure capital expenditure compared to ₹7.5 lakh crore (BE) during 2022–23, which is a 33% year-on-year increase. <br /><br />The overall effective capital expenditure of the Government is estimated at ₹13.7 lakh crore for 2023–24 considering the additional grant in aid earmarked for capital asset creation for states. Given such high budgetary provisions, it is clear that infrastructure spending remains a key lever for the Government of India to enable overall GDP growth. <br /><br />Multiple initiatives have been declared for developing infrastructure in the current Budget including:<br /><br /><ul><li>₹2.4 lakh crore capital outlay for railways<br /></li><li>₹75,000 crore (including ₹15,000 from private sector) for creating 100 critical transport infrastructure for improving first and last mile connectivity for ports, coal, steel, fertilizer and food grain sectors<br /></li><li>50 additional airports, heliports, water aerodromes and advance landing grounds for improving regional connectivity,<br /></li><li>100% mechanical desludging of septic tanks and sewers in all cities and towns focusing on scientific wet and dry waste management<br /></li><li>₹79,000 crore outlay on PM Awas Yojana, 66% higher than previous year<br /></li></ul>The budget also announced multiple forward-looking initiatives for improving the infrastructure sector. For ensuring more private sector investments in infrastructure like roads, railways, urban infrastructure and power, support will be provided by the newly established Infrastructure Finance Secretariat. <br /><br />Focus will be provided to transform our cities to sustainable cities by encouraging states and cities to undertake urban reforms. Cities will be incentivized to improve their creditworthiness – emphasis will be on property tax governance and ring-fencing user charges. An Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF) will be created and managed by National Housing Bank, which will enable creation of infrastructure in Tier 2 and 3 cities by supporting viability gap funding, enabling creation of more bankable projects, enhancing access to external funding, among others. <br /><br />Further, fifty-year interest free loans for capital expenditure within 2023-24 may be availed by the states, which will enable the states allocate funds in areas like urban planning and reforms, fiscal reforms in urban local bodies, capital expenditure (states share), among others. <br /><br />To complement the physical infrastructure spending, multiple initiatives for augmenting digital infrastructure have also been announced in the budget. Examples include the National Data Governance Policy which will enable innovation in areas like road sector management, urban service delivery, urban safety &amp; security management, infrastructure management, among others. Open data will also enable evidence-based policy formulation in the infrastructure sector. <br /><br />The three Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence will enable development of solutions for creating sustainable cities. One hundred labs for developing applications using 5G services will enable creation of digital solutions in areas like intelligent transport management, urban water management, solid waste management, among others. <br /><br />The budget also focusses on green growth, including initiatives for greening of infrastructure. A Green Credit Programme is proposed to be notified for incentivizing undertaking environmentally sustainable activities by various stakeholders including local bodies. Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources dhan (GOBARdhan) scheme intends to create 500 new “Waste to Wealth” plants for promoting a circular economy. Investment of ₹20,700 crore including ₹8,300 crore central support has been allocated for construction of inter-state transmission system for grid integration and evacuation of 13 GW renewable energy from Ladakh. <br /><br />Overall, for attaining over 6% GDP growth, a public investment led budget was needed this year. This budget focuses on increased spending in infrastructure, which is likely to have a multiplier effect by increasing demand generation, creating more employment as well as enhancing the quality of life of citizens.<br /><br /><em>(The author is a Partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Indian LLP) </em><br />

Budget 2023-24: Continued focus on infra to enable growth, create jobs & enhance quality of life

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Molly Lipscomb</span></p><p class="caption">A driver stands next to a truck used to remove sludge from homes in Dakar, Senegal.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>In Dakar, Senegal, residents can drain their septic tanks by manually emptying pits or by hiring truck drivers to take the poop away. </strong></li><li><strong>Hiring a truck driver is too expensive for many residents, and leaving poop in pits outside the home can increase disease risk.</strong></li><li><strong>Molly Lipscomb, a professor at the University of Virginia, helped developed a new system that encourages people to use the truck service.</strong></li><li><strong>Residents can now text a call center, which runs an auction that allows drivers to compete for desludging requests. </strong></li></ul><p>The <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diarrhoeal-disease">World Health Organization estimates</a> that diarrhea kills about 525,000 children under the age of five each year. </p><p>A significant percentage of these deaths could be prevented through proper sanitation, good hygiene, and safe drinking water, according to the WHO. Many people around the world, however, do not have access to centralized sewer networks that help improve sanitation.</p><p>In Dakar, Senegal, only a small fraction of the population - wealthy residents and people in commercial areas - have access to sewer networks. Middle- and low-income residents often flush poop into septic tanks that can be emptied in two ways: <span style="font-weight: 400;"></span>paying someone to shovel the waste into a bucket that gets dumped onto the street, or hiring a truck driver to take the poop to a treatment center.</p><p>Manual emptying costs roughly half as much as the truck service, and residents can remove the waste themselves. But leaving the poop outside can make people sick; University of Virginia professor Molly Lipscomb, who researches how developing countries adapt to a lack of centralized sanitation services, told Business Insider that the poop puts people at risk of diseases, especially children who play on the street. </p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-wants-world-to-move-past-flush-toilets-2018-11">Bill Gates is so obsessed with redesigning the world's toilets, he brought a jar of poop onstage in Beijing to prove it</a></em></p><p>Hiring a truck driver, meanwhile, is a pricey route that many residents avoid.</p><p>In an attempt to improve the system, Senegal's government invited Lipscomb and a team of researchers to Dakar, the country's capital. Lipscomb, who began working with Senegal's national sanitation office in 2011, said she wanted to increase the number of people using the mechanical desludging service but decided against recommending the addition of more trucks.</p><p>There are about 120 desludging trucks in Dakar, which is likely enough to accommodate requests if all residents used the mechanical service, Lipscomb said. As of 2015, however, only 50% of people in the capital relied on truck drivers. </p><p>"The trucks actually have a lot of excess capacity right now," Lipscomb said. "So you can find trucks that are sort of hanging around not doing a lot of work, or just between jobs, pretty easily."</p><p>On top of that, owning a truck comes with a significant entry barrier, as each vehicle costs between $40,000 and $60,000, Lipscomb said. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Molly Lipscomb</span></p><p class="caption">Poop that has been emptied outside a home in Dakar, Senegal.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Lipscomb's team turned to cellphones and came up with a system for residents to order a desludging truck via text message. A call center would hold an auction where truck drivers compete to claim a resident's desludging request - a process that helps bring the service's cost down.</p><p><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/07/27/633171643/uber-for-poop-aims-to-break-up-senegals-septic-cartel">NPR referred</a> to Lipscomb's idea as "Uber for Poop."</p><p>Previously, Lipscomb said, wealthier households paid more for the mechanical service because truck drivers set prices based on what they expected residents to be able to pay. </p><p>The truck drivers have not engaged with the call center format equally, Lipscomb said, but some have participated actively in the auctions. She added that prices have gone down about 7% due to the auctions. </p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It does look like people who call in are the slightly more wealthy households that would probably be price discriminated against in the market," she said. </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Molly Lipscomb</span></p><p class="caption">Two women work at a call center that runs auctions for emptying septic tanks in Dakar, Senegal.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Lipscomb said she and her team - <strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">Terence Johnson at the University of Notre Dame, Laura Schechter at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Jean-Francois Houde at the University of Wisconsin-Madison - did not set out to oversee the system long-term. The professors worked with an NGO and handed the project off to Senegal's government after finishing their research in 2016.</span></strong></p><p>In April 2018, the government decided to put a private company in control of the auctions, Lipscomb said. The Senegalese company Delvic Sanitation Initiatives is set to restart the system in January 2019.</p><p>Lipscomb is still in contact with Delvic and said her team is continuing to examine how to improve the sanitation system. The call center system only covers Dakar right now, though Delvic may choose to expand in the future, Lipscomb said. </p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"[Delvic] actually substantially improved the treatment centers when they were privatized," Lipscomb said. "We can see that through the quantity of sludge going through these treatment centers. So we expect that the call center will do very well under them."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/swearing-good-for-workouts-work-life-health-2018-12">Swearing has more benefits than you may think - from improving your workouts to bonding with your coworkers</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

A new 'Uber for Poop' in Senegal is creating competition to pick up waste from people's homes

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy Kelly Burch</span></p><p class="caption">Kelly Burch in front of her home in New Hampshire.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>We moved to a New Hampshire town of 1,300 this year, where we bought a three-bedroom, 2,700-square foot home on 2.3 acres.</strong></li><li>I <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-buy-a-house-step-by-step-guide">bought my house</a> at a bargain because it was a foreclosure, so I only owe $161,000, but my mortgage and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-file-taxes-tax-return-instructions">taxes</a> are still my biggest expense.</li><li><strong>I've also been surprised by some unexpected expenses of rural life, like having to treat and test our well water, and needing to pay for snow removal and lawn care.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yourmoney?utm_source=bullet">Read more personal finance coverage.</a></strong></li></ul><p>When I give people directions to my home, I do it the old fashioned way: Pass the house with a white picket fence, count two more mailboxes, then a long stretch of woods, then it's our driveway. If you reach the dirt road, you've gone too far. <em>No, really</em>, I warn friends, <em>take the directions, because there's no chance you'll have cell service here</em>. Even if they had service, GPS can never find my house.</p><p>That's because, frankly, I live in the middle of nowhere. When I first moved from a Boston suburb to New Hampshire four years ago I <em>thought</em> we were in the middle of nowhere, but our town had 13,000 people, a Walmart, and exactly three restaurants. That was the big city compared with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-it-costs-to-own-my-2700-square-foot-new-hampshire-home">where we moved this year</a>. Our new town has 1,300 residents, no school, no restaurants, and, as mentioned, no cell service.</p><p>Being in a rural environment has changed everything, including <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-manage-your-money-expert-budgeting-tips">our finances</a>. Here's exactly what it costs to live in my three-bedroom, 2,700-square foot home on 2.3 acres in rural New Hampshire. And, what I'm learning about the cost of rural living.</p><h2>The mortgage payment is our largest monthly expense</h2><p>Each month, I pay $1,419.35 to my mortgage servicer. The payment breaks down like this:</p><ul><li>Principal: $229.12</li><li>Interest: $553.59 (Yikes!)</li><li>Taxes: $636.64 (New Hampshire sells you on no income tax, but fails to mention its massive property taxes.)</li></ul><p>This is the largest monthly expense, but I know it could be much worse. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-i-learned-from-buying-a-foreclosed-home-2019-10">I bought my house at a bargain</a> because it was a foreclosure, so I only owe $161,000. Considering that five years ago I was paying almost this much to live in a Massachusetts rental apartment, I'm happy with my mortgage expense.</p><h2>The other monthly expenses</h2><p>While my mortgage is my biggest single bill, other utilities and services add up fast. These include:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-does-homeowners-insurance-cover">Homeowner's insurance</a>: $65</li><li>Electricity: $110</li><li>Internet and television: $149</li><li>Trash removal: $85</li><li>Oil: $175 per month</li><li>Propane: $20 per month</li></ul><p>I break these expenses down into monthly amount to have a more honest picture of my expenses, but most of them aren't paid monthly. Homeowner's insurance is paid in a lump sum of $780 in January. I know I'm stuck with that price for the long term, because we're so rural (and so far from the fire department) that only one insurer in the state would write us a plan.</p><p>Oil is our biggest monthly expense, but it's entirely seasonal. We usually fill our oil tank about three times between October and April to fuel our heating system. Allowing the tank to get below a quarter can clog the furnace, so it's critical that we keep money set aside for fuel delivery, and check the tank regularly. Propane, which fuels our gas stove, is similar. Our tank costs about $200 to fill, which we've been told should last a year.</p><h2>Uniquely rural expenses include our well, septic, and a ride-on mower</h2><p>When I first moved to New Hampshire, I was shocked to learn there was no trash collection. We could pay a minimal amount to haul our trash to the dump, but instead we have a small dumpster at our home that is emptied every other week. The $85 a month is well worth it.</p><p>Our new home has a septic system and well water. At first, I was thrilled to save the $100 a month we had been paying for water and sewer. However, I quickly realized that septic and wells have their own expenses. We had to pay $475 to have our well shocked when we moved in, to ensure the water was safe. After that, I spend $25 a month on test strips for the first three months, until I was convinced the water was safe. We know we'll need to pump the septic soon, which will cost about $500.</p><p>Living on a large lot means we need to invest in snow removal and lawn care. We bought a $1,200 on a ride on mower when we moved, which allows us to cut the grass in one hour, rather than three (after all, time is money). We're currently debating whether to spend about $1,500 on a plow for my husband's truck, or pay $50 each snow storm to have someone plow our driveway. The plow will likely pay for itself in three years, so we're leaning toward that option.</p><p>Then, there's preparedness. If we lose electricity we'll have no water or heat. We know that we're a last priority for power restoration, so we'll likely spend $1,500 on a propane-powered portable generator that could power the basics even if we lose electricity.</p><h2>Overall, we still come out ahead</h2><p>There are certainly added expenses to living rural (including ones not mentioned here, like the extra gas money is takes to get, well, anywhere). However, the low housing expenses and limited options for shopping and dining out keep our monthly spending low. Of course, my husband and I chose this lifestyle for more than financial reasons, but saving money has been a great added bonus.</p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>More <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/personal-finance-insider">personal finance</a> coverage</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-airline-credit-card-comparison-delta-united-american">What's the best airline credit card?</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com//best-cash-back-credit-cards">The best cash back credit cards</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/are-cds-a-good-investment">Are CDs a good investment?</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/when-to-save-money-in-high-yield-savings">When to save money in high-yield savings</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-rewards-credit-cards">Best rewards credit cards</a></li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/behind-scenes-fox-news-star-shepard-smith-donald-trump-politics-2017-12">Behind the scenes with Shepard Smith - the Fox News star who just announced his resignation from the network</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Here's exactly what it costs to own my 3-bedroom, 2,700-square foot home on 2.3 acres in rural New Hampshire

If we want to keep America from collapsing, we have to do the unthinkable

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</span></p><p class="caption">Bill Gates held up a beaker of human feces at the reinvented toilet expo in Beijing on November 6, 2018 to prove a point: unsanitary conditions are dangerous for our health.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Worm toilets require no traditional flushing and aren't hooked up to a sewer system - instead, worms compost human waste.</li><li>More than 4,000 such "Tiger Toilets" have been installed to date across India, in homes of people who were previously defecating in the open.</li><li>The worm toilets smell a lot better than a pit latrine, and don't breed mosquitoes either.</li><li>Here's how a $350 toilet powered by worms could <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/bill-gates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">change the world</a> and save lives. </li></ul><p>Worms may not have spines, but they're doing some back-breaking sewer work in more than 4,000 toilets across India. </p><p>Since 2015, a creative new type of toilet called the Tiger Toilet has been popping up outside homes and schools around the country. From the outside, this toilet looks like any other pit latrine. But it doesn't smell like one. Instead, it comes with a built-in population of tiger worms. </p><p>"Their natural breeding, natural habitat is in cow dung heaps, or horse sh*t heaps, that kind of thing," Ajeet Oak, director of the Tiger Toilet company, told Business Insider. "Poop. That's where they like to live."</p><p>The toilets involve no traditional flushing and aren't hooked up to a sewer system. Instead, the worms are contained in a container below the toilet, and they feast on feces. The creatures' activity leaves behind a mix of water, carbon dioxide, and a small amount of wormy compost (that's technically the worms' poo, though it's much less toxic and more nutrient-rich than ours).</p><p>The resulting water isn't clean enough to drink, but it "can go into the ground and it sort of gets filtered naturally from there on," Oak said. No wastewater treatment plant needed. </p><p>To get the worm system to market, <a href="http://www.primoveindia.com/Tiger%20Toilet%20Broucher.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</a> awarded at least <a href="https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/Documents/wsh-strategy-overview.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$4.8 million</a> in grant money to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine <a href="http://www.primoveindia.com/Tiger%20Toilet%20Broucher.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to perfect the technology</a>. Tiger Toilets also received <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/div/portfolio/bvv-tiger" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$170,000 for initial testing in India, Myanmar and Uganda from USAID</a>. Now, after years of development and field testing around the world, the technology is finally reaching people who need it most.</p><p>"These are people who are getting toilets for the first time," Oak said, adding that before getting a Tiger Toilet, "they would go out in the field." </p><p>Bill Gates <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-wants-world-to-move-past-flush-toilets-2018-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently told a crowd in Beijing</a> that he's ready to spend an additional $200 million developing technology for next-generation toilets like these that can operate without mainframe sewer systems. </p><p>"We estimate that by 2030, the opportunity here is over $6 billion a year," Gates said.</p><p><strong>Read More</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-wants-world-to-move-past-flush-toilets-2018-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Bill Gates is so obsessed with redesigning the world's toilets, he brought a jar of poop onstage in Beijing to prove it</em></a></p><h2>How worms clean excrement</h2><p><span>Tiger worms, or Eisenia fetida if you prefer the scientific term, are animals that love to eat waste. This makes them a perfect composting solution, and they especially love what falls into their Tiger Toilet compartment. </span></p><p><span>"These worms, they won't escape on their own, because they won't survive in just soil," Oak said. They need our human waste to live.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Bear Valley Ventures</span></p><p class="caption">These worms love eating human waste. The byproduct they create is mostly just water.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The Tiger Toilet system <span>costs about $350 USD to install and </span>requires no connection to drainage pipes or a mainline sewer.</p><p>Once a person does their business in the toilet, they send their waste down into the worm-filled compartment below using a pour-flush system, usually with a little bucket of water. (There are no handles or automatic flushing devices in the Tiger Toilet.)</p><p>The toilet's cleaning stats are <a href="https://iwaponline.com/washdev/article-abstract/4/2/231/30367/Processing-of-human-faeces-by-wet-vermifiltration?redirectedFrom=fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noopener">impressive</a>: they <a href="http://www.primoveindia.com/Tiger%20Toilet%20Broucher.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">process feces, remove 99% of the pathogens, and leave behind no more than 15% of the waste</a> by weight, in the form of compost material. The rest becomes water (around 60-70%) and carbon dioxide. That's better performance than a septic tank.</p><p>Plus, the leftover byproduct makes for "excellent fertilizer," Oak said, because its mix of nitrogen, phosphorous, carbon, and potassium is good for growing plants. </p><p>Tiger Toilets (and Tiger worm-powered treatment plants, like the one pictured below) also don't breed mosquitoes or attract other flying menaces.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Tiger Toilets</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"Users find the toilets preferable to traditional latrines," <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/global-waters/march-2015/thinking-outside-latrine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USAID wrote of the toilets</a> during field testing in 2015. "Because the worms break down the solid waste, the toilets emit fewer odors and attract fewer flies than traditional latrines."</p><p>The earliest editions of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278035736_The_Tiger_Toilet_From_Concept_to_Reality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tiger Toilets</a> are now more than five years old and their worm compartments haven't needed any maintenance yet - the slimy creatures are still chomping away. Eventually, after about eight to 10 years, the company expects some toilet maintenance to be required. At that point, the worm bin, which isn't visible to toilet users, must be emptied.</p><p>It's not a terrible job - "you don't have to handle sludge," Oak said. </p><p>Simply remove the lid of the toilet, exposing the top layer of worm castings - their leftovers from years of hard work. Then shovel it out and use it in a garden as fertilizer. Then the worm population will be ready to work again. </p><h2>Why people need worm toilets</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Rohit Joshi</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>The tiny worms that make their home in filth are performing a lifesaving task for humans. </span></p><p>Across the developing world, people without a safe place to go to the bathroom can die because of unsanitary conditions. <span>Diarrhea kills 525,000 children under five annually around the world "as a result of poor hygiene," according to the </span><a href="http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diarrhoeal-disease">World Health Organization</a><span>. </span></p><p><span>Improper hygiene also causes the global economy to miss out on an <a href="https://www.lixil.com/en/makeasplash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated $223 billion USD</a> per year.</span></p><p><span>Additionally, open defecation can be a dangerous situation for women. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5100257/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A 2016 study in India</a> found that women who defecate in the open are twice as likely to be sexually assaulted by a stranger as those who have a toilet in their house. </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Gouri Thakar</span></p><p class="caption">Mangal Shirke who lives in the village of Adachiwadi celebrates outside her first at-home toilet.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>In India, millions of people relieve themselves outdoors on a daily basis - 40% of the country's population, according to the <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.ODFC.ZS?locations=IN" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Bank's estimate</a> from 2015. </span></p><p><span><a href="http://sbm.gov.in/sbmReport/home.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The country has set a</a> "Swachh Bharat Mission" goal of becoming open-defecation free this year, but it's unlikely to be fully successful, since e</span>ven people who can access a toilet don't always use it. A <a href="https://riceinstitute.org/research/changes-in-open-defecation-in-rural-north-india-2014-2018-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2018 survey</a> of more than 9,800 people and 150 local government officials across India found that one in four people in rural northern provinces have access to latrines but don't use them. </p><p>Some people choose to relieve themselves in the open for compelling reasons. An Indian woman identified only as "Veer" told Meenakshi Dalal, a program and communications specialist with USAID/India, that men block the way to her community toilet, taunting and harassing women.</p><p>"They dress up as women, they get in line with us, they might touch us," <a href="https://medium.com/usaid-global-waters/open-defecation-vs-community-toilets-a-complicated-choice-a5cfe84dcd4d?fbclid=IwAR16gd7yzeUwFUIl_hisJi6fGlYsXlAqqkdZSZZosF5I5fR1rH2ADflSpW8">Dalal recalled Veer telling her</a>. "Every few days someone is raped. On one side of the toilet is where we live and on the other side it's jungle. They can pull us there."</p><p>Tiger toilets is testing out some options for crowded slums like Veer's - a kind of downsized, city-friendly version of the worm toilet - but they're not ready yet.</p><p>"The challenge is to have something for a family which can be put in a very small house," Oak said. "We're calling it the Urban Tiger Toilet." </p><p><span>India's government has also started offering cash incentives to people who install toilets in their homes, which makes a Tiger Toilet even more affordable for families who are getting their first toilet. </span></p><h2>Bringing worm toilets to the world</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Rohit Patankar</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Lixil Group, the parent company that owns toilet-industry giants American Standard and Grohe, is also interested in Tiger Toilets. The company recently signed a letter of intent to bring Tiger Toilets to scale.</p><p>"Eventually we want to have something that's really sleek and you can place anywhere," <span> </span>Daigo <span>Ishiyama, </span>Lixil's  <span>marketing and technology director,</span><span> told Business Insider.</span></p><p><span>But he said that will take some time: </span><span>"We're dealing with living creatures - you know, worms."</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Rahul Aluri</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>Still, this kind of game-changing new invention - a toilet that requires no traditional sewer system - is an exciting prospect for Gates. He has even compared it to the invention of the personal computer. </span></p><p><span>"A whole new product category is being introduced here," he said.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/waterless-toilet-future-backed-bill-gates-foundation-2017-5">Bill Gates is backing the waterless toilet of the future - here's how it works</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

A $350 toilet powered by worms may be the ingenious future of sanitation that Bill Gates has been dreaming about

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</span></p><p class="caption">Bill Gates holds up a beaker of human feces at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing on November 6, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Bad sanitation <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bathroom-hand-washing-after-using-the-toilet-2018-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kills 525,000 children under five</a> every year and contributes to malnutrition and the spread of disease.</strong></li><li><strong>Bill Gates thinks it's not practical for the entire world to adopt flush toilets, so he's spending $400 million to fund research into toilets that don't require a sewer system. </strong></li><li><strong>After seven years of investment, some of the first products are available.</strong></li></ul><p>Bill Gates isn't afraid of potty talk.</p><p>On Tuesday, he got onstage in front of business leaders, investors, and government officials from around the world <a href="https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1059816423294287872" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and unveiled</a> what he politely referred to as a "little exhibit." It was a glass jar filled with human feces.</p><p>"It's good to be reminded, in there could be over 200 trillion rotavirus particles, 20 billion Shigella bacteria, and 100,000 parasitic worm eggs," Gates told the crowd, which had gathered in Beijing, China for an event called the Reinvented Toilet Expo.</p><p>The jar of poo was used to make a point: Around the world, in places without proper sanitation or sewage systems, there's much more than a jar's worth of unsanitary human waste sitting around. </p><p>"That's what kids, when they're out playing, they are being exposed to all the time," Gates said, noting the link between bad sanitation and disease, death, and malnutrition.</p><p>To address that problem, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation started its <a href="https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/Documents/Fact_Sheet_Reinvent_the_Toilet_Challenge.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reinvent the Toilet Challenge</a> in 2011. The initiative funded $200 million in grants for universities around the world to develop a next-generation toilet.  The goal: develop a waste-processing system that doesn't need to be hooked up a typical sanitation and sewer grid.</p><p>The new systems that have been created with those grants turn what we put into the toilet into fertilizer, energy, or recycled water, some of which is good enough to drink.</p><p>The Gates Foundation now intends to invest an additional $200 million into research that can yield additional ways to deal with human waste at the source. </p><h2>The problem with the toilets we have now</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Sam Phelps</span></p><p class="caption">Malickane Gueye stands with his children in front of a newly constructed toilet at his home in Dakar, Senegal on September 25, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In 2015, the <a href="http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Health Organization estimated</a> that just 39% of the world's people were using a "safely-managed" lavatory, whether it be a toilet or a decently clean latrine. </p><p>Living without a good toilet can be unsafe. People who come in contact with fecal matter face a risk of deadly infections and chronic health problems, since h<span>uman feces carry pathogens like E. coli, Streptococcus, hepatitis A and E, and more</span><span>. Those can cause pneumonia and diarrhea - the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/why-handwashing.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top two killers of kids</a> around the world.</span></p><p>Plus, if people don't have a place to go at home, they have to travel alone into woods or a field to relieve themselves, which can be risky for women and children living in conflict zones.</p><p><span>"When you think about things that are basic, right up there with health and enough to eat, I think having a reasonable toilet certainly belongs on that list," Gates said.</span></p><p><em><strong>Read More</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bathroom-hand-washing-after-using-the-toilet-2018-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Do you really have to wash your hands every time you use the bathroom? The definitive answer, according to science</a></em></p><p>He estimates that illness from poor sanitation costs the world <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Reinvent-the-Toilet-Expo-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">over $223 billion per year</a> in lost wages and extra healthcare.</p><p>With <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gates-foundation-ceo-sue-desmond-hellman-let-women-end-poverty-in-africa-2018-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stratospheric rates of population growth in cities across Africa and Asia</a>, the problem is only set to get worse. </p><p>"Unless we do something, the cycle of disease will actually be accelerated," Gates said. </p><p>Gates doesn't think it's practical to expect the entire world to connect their homes to yet-to-be-built sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants. That's why he has been on a quest to do for toilets what he argues Microsoft did for computing: get the business off a centralized, "mainframe" system.</p><p>Gates started by asking engineers at universities around the world a simple but yet-unanswered question: "could you leapfrog the long-accepted 'gold standard' of sanitation?" </p><p>"A decade ago, I didn't think I would be able to tell you so much about poop," Gates said.</p><h2>The first generation of sewer-free toilets is here, but they aren't cheap yet</h2><p>After seven years and $200 million of investment, the first batch of products from the "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" is being tested in locations around India, Africa, and China. </p><p>One of the first new toilets is the solar-powered Eco-san system, pictured below. Based on technology <a href="http://hoffmann.caltech.edu/research/contribution.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed at Cal Tech,</a> the Eco-san extracts clean water from human waste and reuses it for future flushing.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Shawn Koh</span></p><p class="caption">An Eco-san Toilet at Yixing Huankeyuan Elementary School in Yixing City, Jiangsu Province, China.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Other models are also in the works from companies and universities around the world. </p><p>The <a href="http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/newgenerator-bringing-clean-water-and-energy-south-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of South Florida's NewGenerator</a> treatment system also runs on solar energy and can be hooked up to any existing toilet. It uses a nano-membrane filter (kind of like a coffee filter) with feces-digesting anaerobic bacteria inside to filter clean water out of the waste.</p><p>Another toilet from <a href="https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/case-studies/research-case-studies/nano-membrane-toilet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cranfield University in the UK</a> comes equipped with a little trap door odor barrier and scraper so that it requires no water for flushing. Clean water is filtered out of waste via a large, orange screw in the tank, and solid waste is burned inside the toilet's combustor, which converts the waste into ash and energy. (Thankfully, this all happens out of sight of the people who are using the toilet.)</p><p>"Heat from the burning is used to help dry the next batch of solids," as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqcknE_Ic_g%20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gates explained in a video</a>. He added, "it's a very clever toilet." </p><p>Yet another model, from Swiss engineering firm Helbling, is called the HTClean Toilet and it functions like a pressure cooker for poo. The immense pressure and heat helps the waste separate into water and solids that aren't toxic.</p><p><a href="https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/coimbatore-sanitation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Duke University</a> has also started testing its Gates-funded toilet this year at a textile mill in Coimbatore, India. The system, shown below, separates solid and liquid waste and makes it possible to safely re-use the water for flushing. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Ryan Lobo</span></p><p class="caption">Prateek K, a technical field consultant engineer, stands next to the Duke system, which dries out fecal matter and separates parasitic worms from feces, allowing for water to be recycled or discharged.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>None of these sewer-free toilets are yet at a price that's feasible for individual homes. For now, the new toilets are going to be used at schools, apartment complexes, and community bathroom areas, Gates said.</p><p>But his eventual goal is for off-grid toilets to be used in homes around the world. He <span>told the crowd in Beijing that he's ready to spend an additional $200 million developing the technology for those next-generation toilets. But Gates </span>hopes that someday, the private sector will start developing sewer-free home toilets, and compete to provide those toilets to the 4.5 billion people around the world who don't have them now. </p><p><span>"We estimate that by 2030, the opportunity here is over $6 billion a year," he said. </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Samantha Reinders</span></p><p class="caption">Children at the Gugulethu Primary School in KwaMashu, outside of Durban, South Africa, on September 19, 2018. The school is a recipient of a new Eco-san toilet system, care of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Gates is also investing in self-powered sewage systems </h2><p>Gates is also obsessed with something called an Omni Processor, which is essentially a much smaller version of a waste treatment plant. </p><p>The small plants, one of which is already on the ground in Dakar, Senegal, can serve between 5,000 and 100,000 customers and are completely self-powered. They take in toilet waste, kill pathogens in the sewage, and convert it into "products with commercial value - like clean water, electricity, and fertilizer," Gates said. It's a lot like what astronauts do on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-you-go-to-bathroom-space-nasa-astronaut-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Space Station</a> - turning their pee into clean, drinkable H2O.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Sam Phelps</span></p><p class="caption">Technician Idrissa Coulibaly walks to the Janicki Omni Processor in Dakar, Senegal on September 25, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Gates is so enthused about the Omni Processor's clean, recycled water that he once drank it himself.</p><p>"It tasted great," he told the Beijing crowd. "I'd be glad to do it again any time." </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Sam Phelps</span></p><p class="caption">Waste collector Assane Cissé (left) and Mariama Seck vacuum human waste from a reservoir inside a courtyard at a home in the neighborhood of Gúediaye, Dakar, Senegal on September 25, 2018. Waste collectors remove human waste from a reservoir underneath the home with a tube and vacuum system. The waste is then transported to the Omni Processor in Dakar for treatment.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Gates never thought that he'd turn from a computer whiz into a toilet geek.</p><p>"I definitely didn't think that my wife would have to tell me that in some cases I'm talking too much about toilets and how this <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> of combusting the feces works," he said.</p><p>But he's committed to the task, since better toilets could help save millions of lives and open up an entirely new market. </p><p>"A whole new product category is being introduced here," Gates said. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/waterless-toilet-future-backed-bill-gates-foundation-2017-5">Bill Gates is backing the waterless toilet of the future - here's how it works</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Bill Gates is obsessed with redesigning the world's toilets - and he just brought a container of poo onstage to prove it

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/BillGates/photos/a.10150331291841961/10155645521796961/?type=3&amp;theater">Bill Gates/Facebook</a></span></p><p class="caption">Bill and Melinda Gates</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Bill and Melinda Gates keep saying the word is getting better and it's easy to look around and shrug off their optimism.</li><li>So I spent a day at their foundation, talking to the people working on some of the world's hairiest, most intractable problems.</li><li>And they are winning.</li></ul><p>Bill and Melinda Gates keep insisting that - despite problems like climate change, political divisions and income disparity, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-trust-me-the-world-is-really-getting-better-not-worse-2018-1">world is getting better for most people on Earth.</a></p><p>In late January, Bill Gates expertly trolled the 10-year challenge meme with a tweet that said: "It's hard to beat this #10YearChallenge." The tweet <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/18/18188511/10-year-challenge-global-poverty-good-news?linkId=62841733">included a graphic </a>that showed how, in the last 10 years, extreme poverty, child mortality and youth illiteracy were all way down, while life expectancy was up.</p><p>The Gates' optimism is delightful. But it's easy to shrug it off as the rose-tinted perspective of a couple luxuriating in an abundance of gifts: intelligence, love, family, success and more money than King Midas.</p><p>I recently spent the day at the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, walking a mile in the billionaires' shoes, so to speak, and talking with some of the managers and directors who run various programs there. </p><p>Hearing about their work was inspiring and gave me a newfound hope for the future, just like Bill's.</p><p>And the reason is simple. These people are taking on some of the world's hairiest, most complex and seemingly intractable problems. </p><p>And they are winning.</p><h2>Death to polio and malaria</h2><p>Gates' father, Bill Gates, Sr., was the first to run the family charitable foundation in the late '90s. The foundation has morphed into a much bigger entity over time, especially after it became the main focus of Bill and Melinda Gates themselves.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bill-gates-sr-and-bill-gates-are-seen-during-the-the-lasker-news-photo/181317443">Brian Ach/Getty Images</a></span></p><p class="caption">Bill Gates with father Bill Gates, Sr.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The elder Bill Gates' presence still hangs large at the Foundation's visitor's center, which is a cross between a techie interactive kids' museum, a community educational facility, and a place to learn about the Foundation's work.</p><p>A video of Gates' dad introduces himself, and explains that because of the "other fellow" - that is, his famous son - he's known as "Senior." </p><p>In its early days, the foundation focused mostly on local charity, but turned its attention to global health after Bill Gates Jr. read an article on children in poor countries dying from preventable illnesses.</p><p>He sent the article to his dad with a note that said: "Dad, maybe we can do something about this."</p><p><span>Those words are now plastered in giant letters in the visitor's center.</span></p><p><span>T</span>he foundation has since become a major force in global health. It joined a global effort to eradicate polio in 2007. In 1988 there were an estimated 350,000 case of polio worldwide. In, 2018, there were only 29 reported cases.  </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">Gates Foundation visitor's center</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Gunning for malaria</h2><p>The success with polio is a source of pride and inspiration at the foundation. To them, it's proof that hard problems like distributing vaccines to poor, remote children can be solved by smart people and repeatable systems. </p><p>With Bill and Melinda as their leaders, the people at the foundation are stunningly smart with impressive credentials: I met neuroscientists, biologists and infectious disease specialists. </p><p>With polio almost over, the foundation now wants to end malaria.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">Gates Foundation mosquito nets</p></div><p></p></div></div>Like the others I met, Philip Welkhoff, the director of the Malaria team, has a personal interest in the mission - and impressive credentials. He grew up in Haiti and had malaria himself as a kid. He became a rocket scientist, then earned his PhD in computational neuroscience from Princeton and turned his attention to global health.</p><p>He loves his job because he's saving lives.</p><p>"All the work that the international community does together saves about 500,000 people from malaria every year compared to the early 2000s. That's a half million lives every single year," he told me. </p><p>The current challenge is to reach the most remote locations, which the foundation has expertise in doing, and containing outbreaks. No malaria vaccine is rolled out yet, but the foundation is having a lot luck by increasing the distribution of mosquito-killing bed nets.</p><p>But even a limited outbreak can turn into a bigger infection once mosquitoes start transmitting the illness, and people move from place to place. And so, malaria is even more complicated to eradicate than polio.</p><p>Still, there's steady progress, and the goal is to reduce malaria deaths 90% by 2030 compared to their 2015 level.</p><h2>The toilet team</h2><p>Outside of malaria, one of the projects that gets a lot of attention is Bill Gates' off-the-grid toilet project, which asks scientists to rethink the toilet.</p><p>Gates launched the<a href="https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/Documents/Fact_Sheet_Reinvent_the_Toilet_Challenge.pdf"> Reinvent the Toilet</a> challenge in 2011, asking researchers to come up with toilets that could sanitize human waste with no water, electricity, sewer or septic system. The toilets were to clean the waste and reclaim the water to safe drinking water standards, as well as to harvest other nutrients for other uses, a game-changer to those living without sanitation.</p><p>Some of those original teams went to the nines on their designs. One team even held a "smell summit" working with perfume makers who recreated latrine smells. This to help them test their methods for countering such smells. That work involving taking whiffs of those lovely scents.</p><p>The director of the toilet project is Brian Arbogast - though his real title is "director, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene," and his job involves more than just toilets. He's funding a variety of projects that improve human sanitation.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">Gates Foundation toilet</p></div><p></p></div></div>Arbogast was an early Microsoft employee, spending 22 years rising to the level of corporate vice president. He left the company to become a cleantech investor, and has been on the boards of various clean-water entities and charities. He worked closely with Bill Gates for decades before joining the foundation in 2013. </p><p>When the toilet project was first started, no one knew if it could really be done, Arbogast said. In 2015, though, one inventor produced a system called the Omni Processor. It's not a toilet, but an off-grid fecal sludge treatment plant that outputs purified water. One day it may also output electricity.</p><p>A working prototype has been operating in Dakar, Senegal in Africa for a few years. Arbogast believes the tech will eventually influence sanitation in the developed world, including green buildings, septic systems and remote, off-the-grid cabins.</p><p><span>The latest version has been licensed to three commercial companies: the US company created by the tech's inventor, Sedron Technologies, as well as a company in China and one in India.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVzppWSIFU0&amp;t=25s">YouTube/GatesNotes</a></span></p><p class="caption">OmniProcessor inventor Peter Janicki pours Bill Gates a glass of water processed from human fecal sludge.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><h2><span>Poop hats and toilet water</span></h2><p>Bill Gates famously drank the sewage water produced from the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVzppWSIFU0">Dakar Omni Processor in 2015. </a>And there are lots of stories at the foundation and in the Gates household about that water.</p><p>"Two weeks before [Bill drank], I had to drink from it, as did most of the team," Arbogast told us.</p><p>Melinda Gates told us that her daughter made her drink that water, too. Bill Gates drove around with a 2-liter bottle of it in his car for weeks, and every time someone got in the car, their daughter made them drink some.</p><p>"I<span>f we got sick - which we didn't - it would not have not been from the water, but because we're all passing it around,"  Melinda Gates laughed.</span></p><p><span>Gates spread the love around, too: In 2015, he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-jimmy-fallon-poop-water-2015-1">tricked Jimmy Fallon</a> into drinking that water on the air, as well. </span></p><p>And there are actual toilets in development, too, with models on display (but not available for use) at the foundation's visitor's center. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p><p class="caption">The Poop emoji hat is a symbol of honor for the Gates water sanitation team. The person who came up with a brilliant idea gets to wear it for the day.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In November, Arbogast's team and Bill Gates spearheaded the Reinvented Toilet expo in Beijing. It drew in 1,200 attendees, and loads of exhibitions for new sanitation tech.</p><p>Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, keynoted the event - but Gates stole the show by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-wants-world-to-move-past-flush-toilets-2018-11">bringing a jar of poop on stage</a> to use as a visual aid.</p><p>The group wears their association with poop as a badge of honor, Arbogast says.</p><p>He keeps a hat that looks like a poop emoji in his office, and someone on his team often gets to wear it like a crown.</p><p><span>"The poop hat gets passed on for a job well done," he said.</span></p><h2>Worldwide clout</h2><p>Dr. Kathy Kahn is a scientist who funds agricultural projects. Kahn is having success with projects that improve how <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/01/03/681941779/scientists-have-hacked-photosynthesis-in-search-of-more-productive-crops">plants do photosynthesis</a>. These plants grow faster using far less water. It's a promising field for arid countries, as well as for growing food adapted to climate change.</p><p>Kahn came to the foundation after working at the <span>U.S. Department of Agriculture. She said one of the things that makes her work here different is the foundation's name recognition. </span></p><p><span>While other nonprofits toil in obscurity, the Gates Foundation carries prestige. She gets a seat at the table with worldwide policy makers and the top scientists in her field. It's a scientist's dream, she says. </span></p><h2><span>In awe of the Gates'</span></h2><p>One of the themes we heard repeatedly was how much employees appreciated their access to Bill and Melinda Gates. They are heavily involved, eagle-eyed, ask penetrating questions and they work as a team, each bringing different perspectives. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Elaine Thompson/AP Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Progress meetings with them can feel exhilarating and nervewracking, like any employee feels about presenting to their CEO.</p><p>But there's a general sense of good humor, too. </p><p>If a technical issue occurs, say with the videoconferencing system, and an employee can't immediately fix it, Bill Gates can do it without blinking an eye. There's nothing like having one of the fathers of the PC industry in the room when tech support is needed.</p><p>Another theme was just about the thrill of having Bill or Melinda Gates get excited about the employee's projects or work. </p><h2>Helping whole countries get healthier</h2><p>Of all the stories, Dr. Jean Kagubare's was one of the most moving.</p><p>Born in Rwanda, his parents fled the country when he was a baby. He became a doctor and returned to Rwanda right after the genocide of the 1990s. He ran several national health programs and one the country's biggest hospitals before moving to the US and getting his PhD in health systems at John Hopkins. He stayed in the US, working in global health, landing at the foundation about two years ago. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">Gates Foundation takes a broader approach to global health and measures holistic outcomes.</p></div><p></p></div></div>His job is to coordinate resources and measure results to ensure the healthcare system is improving. For instance, the foundation has funded a telemedicine app that helps doctors treat far-flung patients in villages without forcing them to travel to a healthcare facility.</p><p>Prior to this program, global healthcare workers would sort of parachute in to a country and focus on their one area - distributing vaccines or providing prenatal care, he explained. Those programs still exist, but now they are coordinated in a more holistic way, and his program measures total healthcare improvement, rather than just progress in one area.</p><p>"<span>Bill Gates asks the question all time: Is our money going to where it should be? Are the right people getting help?" he said. </span></p><p><span>All of this means that Kagubare is helping far more people across the globe, and especially in his home country, than he could when he worked as a doctor.</span></p><p>"<span>I was in Rwanda two months ago and talked to people and patients there. Patients are getting treatment that costs less and they don't have wait four hours at facilities, the average wait time, or pay to go to [far away] clinics," he said. </span></p><p>It's the best feeling.</p><ul><li style="list-style-type: none;"><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/melinda-gates-explains-why-data-can-be-sexist-2019-2">Melinda Gates points out a major problem with how we make decisions: data is sexist</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-warns-cow-farts-climate-change-2019-2">Bill Gates warns of the dangers of cow farts - and the world should take his words seriously</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/melinda-gates-advice-working-moms-manage-stress-2019-2">Melinda Gates has some great advice on how working parents can reduce stress</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/after-talking-to-teens-last-year-about-anger-management-bill-gates-admits-that-some-of-his-famous-microsoft-tantrums-might-not-have-been-wise-2019-1">After talking to teens about anger management, Bill Gates admits that some of his Microsoft meltdowns were over the top</a></li></ul></li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-macbook-air-laptop-microsoft-surface-go-tablet-review-2019-1">We compared the $1,200 MacBook Air with the $500 Surface Go, and the results were a mess</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

I spent an uplifting day at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and discovered what it's really like to work there

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="Tom Archer" title_caption="Lake Erie in 2009 from an altitude of 2,500 feet just north of Kelley's Island, Ohio. " class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5318a88869bedd8220354544-960/tom%20archer%204.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Tom Archer</span></p><p class="caption">Lake Erie in 2009 from an altitude of 2,500 feet just north of Kelley's Island, Ohio. </p></div><p></p></div>Lake Erie is being invaded by algae that is turning its waters bright green, killing off communities of fish, and seriously injuring the tourism industry.</p>
<p>The algae's extensive blooming in recent years is due to surges in phosphorus, which is running into the waters from farms and cities, which the algae feeds on.</p>
<p>You can see how much worse Lake Erie is than the other great lakes in the image below from October 2011. The milky blue near the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan is quartz sand and sediment stirred up by strong winds.</p>
<p>You don't see that in Lake Erie, the smallest of the Great Lakes. The green is the smelly algae:</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>NASA Earth Observatoy</span></p></div><p></p></div> This 2011 algal bloom was record-setting - three times the size of the largest previous bloom - and triggered an <a href="http://ijc.org/language/">International Joint Commission</a> investigation. Their report, released last month, discussed the particularly hard-hit western end of Lake Erie, where the Maumee River spills into the lake.</p>
<p>While boaters and swimmers aren't likely to become seriously ill from touching or swimming in the green waters, some may experience "skin irritation....gastrointestinal discomfort and, in very rare but severe cases, acute liver failure if the bloom is ingested," according to the <a href="http://www.ijc.org/files/publications/2014%20IJC%20LEEP%20REPORT.pdf">report</a>. Of all the Great Lakes, only Lake Erie has noted cases of human and dog deaths from harmful algal blooms, said the report.</p>
<p>Algae can produce toxins harmful to fish. Additionally, as algae die, they decompose, using up oxygen supplies in the process that would normally be reserved for the fish. As the shallowest and warmest of the Great Lakes, Erie supports more than 130 fish species, said the report.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Tom Archer</span></p></div><p></p></div>The 2011 bloom caused an estimated $2.4 million dollar loss in Ohio's recreational fishing industry alone and a $1.3 million dollar loss to Maumee Bay State Park due to lack of visitors, said the report.</p>
<p>The image below, from 2011, shows the algae's impact in Pelee Island in Canada, which is East of Maumee Bay and five miles north of the international border:</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Tom Archer</span></p></div><p></p></div>The commission said the bloom was caused by increased phosphorus runoff from a variety of sources including farm and residential fertilizers, septic tank leaks, pet waste, and storm drains.</p>
<p>One of the most infamous bloom-inducing culprits is known as dissolved reactive phosphorus - popular in certain types of farm fertilizers - the use of which has increased two-fold and is algae's favorite meal, Don Scavia, director of the University of Michigan's Graham Sustainability Institute, <a href="http://www.newsdaily.com/canada/42be9b5d0a08ac7fb6a458e1ec85d2e5/plan-seeks-phosphorus-cuts-to-stop-lake-erie-algae">told the Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">Roughly 63% of Lake Erie's watershed is used for agriculture, said the report, which is a main source of these phosphorus-heavy runoffs.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>NASA/AP</span></p></div><p></p></div>The commission says a 39% decrease in phosphorus levels (from the 2007-2012 average) in the Maumee River - which is Lake Erie's single largest source of phosphorus - would go a long way to solving the algae problem.</p>
<p>The report also calls for better industrial fertilization practices, such as making sure the fertilizer is directly applied to the soil instead of being trapped on top of ice and snow, which can happen when it is applied in fall and winter.</p>
<p>There is hope. Similar, though less extreme, blooms occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. By decreasing how much phosphorus made it into the lake, the algal blooms were curbed by the mid 1980s. The lake came back from the dead.</p>
<p>While we can't predict future blooms, the report suggests bigger and badder blooms may keep coming if nothing is done. Climate change could cause more extreme runoff events and warmer water temperatures - conditions ideal for blooms.</p>

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