The eighth annual World Toilet Summit and Expo, which opens today in Macau, looks at how to provide affordable, environmentally friendly and basic access to sanitation. Forty percent of the world’s population — 2.5 billion people — do not have access to a hygienic toilet, according to the Singapore-based World Toilet Organization, and that leads to sewage flowing directly into waterways, affecting coastal and marine ecosystems and exposing millions of people to disease. The U.N., which has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation, says about 90 percent of sewage and 70 percent of industrial waste in developing countries are discharged, untreated, into waterways, often polluting the usable water supply.
At the summit, companies like Switzerland’s Geberit International will be on hand to show off the latest in sanitation technology, and this year’s conference features a Sustainable Sanitation Pavilion exhibiting the latest in low-water and waterless toilet systems. Some low-water toilets have a dual flush system, using a larger amount of water for solid waste and a smaller amount for urine. But the WTO believes advanced dry toilets could be the future of the technology.



