Bill Gates is partnering with South Korean electronics giant Samsung for a public health and sanitation initiative called “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge.”

What Happened: Samsung announced last week it has developed a prototype toilet that is safe and designed for household use. The company’s R&D arm Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology has been collaborating with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on the reinvented toilet since 2019. The core innovations, including heat-treatment and bioprocessing technologies to kill pathogens from human waste, and making the released effluent and solids safe for the environment, were completed recently, Samsung said. A prototype has also been tested.

The company plans to offer royalty-free licenses of patents related to the project to developing countries when commercialization begins. It also plans to give consultation to the Gates Foundation to bring the technologies to mass production.

See also: Bill Gates Is 'So Grateful' To This Nation For Helping To Fight Three Deadly Diseases

Why It’s Important: The Reinvent the Toilet Challenge was launched by the Gates Foundation in 2011.

The project assumes importance due to the health hazards posed by the lack of adequate toilet facilities in developing and underdeveloped countries. It supports products that remove harmful pathogens from human waste, operate off the grid without water and sewer connections and with minimal electricity, and costs less than five cents per day.

Through the project, the Gates Foundation seeks to promote sustainable and profitable sanitation services and businesses in poor urban settings, especially in developing nations.

Citing estimates from WHO and UNICEF, Samsung said about 3.6 billion people are forced to use unsafe sanitation facilities, resulting in the death of half a million children, under five-years-old, every year from diarrheal diseases.

Photo: Courtesy of OnInnovation on flickr