The world’s richest man on earth has taken a swig of glass water made from poo, known in our local parlance as ‘tiefi’
Yes, surprising and shocking as it may sound, this is true. Bill Gates has given his backing to a machine through a 1000 degrees celcius process, which turns people’s poo or ‘tiefi’ into safe drinking water.
He hopes that the $1.5million machine, currently under development, will be of use to poorer nations, providing water to around 100,000.
In his blog he explained: ‘I watched the piles of faeces go up the conveyer belt and drop into a large bin.
‘They made their way through the machine, getting boiled and treated. A few minutes later I took a long taste of the end result: a glass of delicious drinking water.’
Despite initial concerns, he adds that he would ‘happily drink it every day.’
The machine is called the Omniprocessor and Gates hopes it will provide a safe alternative to waste being dumped in rivers and lakes.
Poo processor
The processor that will turn poo into water (Picture: Gates Notes)
‘If we get it right’, he said, ‘it will be a good example of how philanthropy can provide seed money that draws bright people to work on big problems, eventually creating a self-supporting industry.
‘[The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation] is funding Janicki to do the development.
‘It’s really amazing to see how they’ve embraced the work; founder Peter Janicki and his family have traveled to Africa and India multiple times so they can see the scope of the problem.’
So, when this invention is finally completed, will you be able to drink the water generated from it?
culled from metro.co.uk