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Engineers at U of T’s Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN) are working on a revolutionary project that could change millions of lives all over the world.

Led by Professor Yu-Ling Cheng (ChemE), Director of CGEN, a team of Faculty engineers hope to reinvent the toilet to provide people in developing worlds with affordable, alternative, sanitation that does the impossible: works for only five cents per user, per day and doesn’t rely on running water, sewerage systems or supplied electricity.

The Reinvent the Toilet Challenge project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded almost $400,000 to U of T Engineering. The Faculty is the only Canadian recipient among eight leading universities worldwide being asked to think outside the box about water closets.

The grant was announced by the Foundation at the AfricaSan conference in Rwanda as part of more than $40 million in new investments launching its Water, Sanitation & Hygiene strategy.

Watch Professor Yu-Ling Cheng describe the project in her own words:

“This is a vital problem and is just the sort of global issue engineers, especially engineers from U of T, are so well suited to tackle,” said Dean Cristina Amon, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “I am confident that we will contribute to solve this major sanitation challenge and health issue for the developing world. We are deeply grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for selecting us as the sole Canadian recipient of this funding.”

“It is a fascinating problem,” said Professor Cheng. “Those of us in the West don’t give toilets much thought. But there are 2.6 billion people in the world who don’t have access to safe and affordable sanitation.” The result is the prevalence and spread of water-borne diseases like dysentery and cholera. “Lack of clean drinking water is important,” said Cheng. “But the lack of a way to safely deal with human waste is even more pressing.”

The Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN) at the University of Toronto promotes scholarly, interdivisional research and other educational activities related to Engineering in a global environment. “U of T was in the right place at the right time,” said Cheng. “Not only are we a world-leading Engineering school, but we’re focused on just these kinds of global challenges and opportunities.”

Over the next year, in Phase One of the Challenge, Cheng and her team will develop the technical ideas to create a prototype and conduct field testing of the concept in Bangladesh to make sure the ideas are culturally appropriate. Then they’ll vie for additional funding for Phase Two.

“It is a developing world problem,” said Cheng, “but, really, if we could make a toilet that didn’t require water, sewerage and power, and we add a splash of First World stylishness, who wouldn’t want to use it in Toronto.”

Read more about the Toilet Challenge in the following selection of stories:

CBC
CityNews
CNN
CP24
CTV
Design News
Digital Journal
Globe & Mail
Maclean’s
MSN Canada
Radio Canada International
Sympatico Canada
Study Magazine
TheSpec
Time Magazine
Torontoist
Toronto Star
TopNews (US)

Additional links from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:

Reinvent the Toilet Challenge Fact Sheet

Toilet Challenge strategy overview

Why a new toilet is necessary

Press release: Reinvent the Toilet Challenge announcement

Prepared remarks by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President, Global Development Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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