What do the Experts Have to Say?

Developing a re-invented toilet has been both challenging and exciting. It is one thing to prove a concept in an academic laboratory; it is much harder to get a prototype built and developed to the point where it can be used in a household – by household members ranging from the 5-year-old child to the 80-year-old grandmother. Transformative innovation does not happen linearly; we have made detours, gone down dead ends, and circled back to approaches we have tried before. We have solved thousands of problems big and small, and the exciting thing is that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We feel privileged to be part of a dedicated community working hard to address a tremendously important problem for the world’s most vulnerable population.

We are proud that Senegal is the first country in the world to nationally adopt ISO 30500 as a national standard! The national adoption of ISO 30500 is in line with the Senegalese policy on sanitation, which intends to allow the private sector to play a bigger role through non-sewered sanitation. NS ISO 30500 is a tool designed to accelerate the readiness of the private sector engaged in the new revolution of on-site sanitation, and will help in the realization of the SDGs.