Bill Gates brandishes poo to showcase reinvented toilet tech
Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates had his hands full on-stage in Beijing on Tuesday, showing a jar of human faeces. The stunt was part of his speech at the Reinvented Toilet Expo event - a showcase for new toilet technologies.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent more than $200m on researching the field across the last seven years. Twenty cutting-edge sanitation products were on display, intended to destroy harmful bacteria and prevent disease.
The entrepreneur was helping to launch the three-day event in China - where leader Xi Jinping has made a so-called "toilet revolution" across the country a policy priority. The showcased products aim to revolutionise sanitation technology by operating off-grid to separate liquid and solid waste and remove harmful by-products. The entrepreneur described the inventions on display as the "most significant advances in sanitation in nearly 200 years".
The technology giant pointed out the jar of faeces beside him could contain as many as 200 trillion rotavirus cells, 20 billion Shigella bacteria, and 100,000 parasitic worm eggs.
According to the World Health Organisation, 2.3 billion people around the world still don't have access to basic sanitation facilities. This can cause diseases like cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery which kill hundreds of thousands of people every year. The foundation has said they hope the reinvented toilet will first roll out in buildings like schools and apartment buildings, before costs gradually decline and they become affordable in households.
Vocabulary:
1.Philanthropist = a person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially by the generous donation of money to good causes.
2.Cutting-edge = the latest or most advanced stage in the development of something.
3.Off-grid = not connected to or served by publicly or privately managed utilities (such as electricity, gas, or water)
Questions:
1.What did Bill Gates showcase in Beijing? What did he point out in a jar of faeces?
2.How much did the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spend on sanitation technology?
3.What are the causes of lack of basic sanitation facilities?
4.State the basic sanitation facilities.
5.What is proper sanitation?
