It’s not often you get to see a working concept turned into a positive solution so fast. The Janicki Omni Processor, which turns human waste into clean drinking water, is now up and working in Dakar, Senegal.
Bill Gates introduced us to the Omni Processor in January, taking a nice swig of the finished product and even getting into a drinking water contest with Jimmy Fallon.
“My review: It was delicious,” he most recently recaps on his blog Gates Notes, updating us on the project’s progress in Dakar.
Amazing doesn’t begin to describe it.
In the video, you will see the problem of sanitation painfully illustrated — up to 1.2 million people in Dakar are not connected to a sewer line. That leaves them to dig their own pits, which often have to be emptied manually. It’s a recipe for mass contamination and illness.
Gates Notes then shows how the Omni Processor takes one third of the sludge in Dakar and makes it into potable water, electricity and ash.
While clean drinking water is all well and good, Gates posts on his blog that that is not the overall purpose of the project:
“The goal is not to provide water,” Gates writes. “The goal is to dramatically improve sanitation for all the cities in poor countries.”
“Today at least 2 billion people use latrines that aren’t properly drained, and diseases caused by poor sanitation kill some 700,000 children every year,” he continues.
“Unfortunately, rich-world solutions aren’t feasible in poor countries — they require too much expensive infrastructure…The idea behind every Omni Processor design is to solve this problem by making sanitation affordable for the poor.”
As Senegal’s program coordinator for the National Institute of Sanitation, Dr. Mbaye Mbeguere, says in the video, they are hoping the Omni Processor becomes a model for others in Africa to invest in the sanitation system. It not only helps clean up neighborhoods and improve quality of life, it’s a viable business option.
Even greater news? Gates reports in his blog that this is only the first iteration of the project, which has allowed them to fix a few engineering problems and set their sights on a much bigger and better use — garbage.
“The technology just keeps getting better: The next version of the machine will burn most types of garbage in addition to human waste, and it will be easier to maintain,” he writes.
He says that there is still a lot to be tested with the viability of the processor in different locales as well as working with local governments, but if this Senegal test is any indication, this processor can work a world of good in a short time.
Gates calls the results “promising” and that his team is “still looking at ways to make the JOP cheaper and smaller.”
“Now we have a business plan, an impassioned team of engineers, great in-country partners, and a pilot project in motion,” he concludes in his post. “I think we have a real shot at solving the sanitation problem. This is a great example of what can happen when we get bright people focused on the world’s biggest problems.”
