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HWEA will be the organization of dedicated and knowledgeable professionals
recognized for preserving and enhancing the water environment in the Pacific Island Region.

On October 10, 2019,


several HWEA members were part of a group of about 75 water/wastewater people, environmentalists, developers and others who attended the day-long Innovations in Sanitation Workshop at the Waikiki Prince Hotel which was put on by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The workshop program was led by Brian Aborgast, Director Water Sanitation & Hygiene, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Stuart Coleman, CEO Wastewater Alternatives and Innovations (WAI). The workshop started off with Aborgast making a presentation on the BMGF efforts and accomplishments on Reinvented Toilets. The attendees were then split-up into four small groups to have discussions on one of: Technology, Finance, Policy & Regulation, and Pilot Projects. The groups reported out and then there were discussions on how these technologies could be beneficial in Hawaii, how/where they could be piloted, who would pay, and how to move to the next step.

FP15A

The presentation by Aborgast showed Single User Reinvented Toilets (SURT) and Multi-User Reinvented Toilets (MURT) and so-called Omni Processors which looked like conventional technology at WWTPs. Products were introduced from laboratories and companies in China (Clear, CRRC, EcoSan), USA (Sedron Tech), India (Eram Sci, Ankur Sci, Tide Tech) and Thailand (SCG). Thus far only MURTs and Omni-processors are commercially available and SURTs are only prototypes that are undergoing testing in labs. SURTs that could be installed in place of an individual toilet in a typical  western bathroom are still a few years away from affordable commercial availability. Some working prototypes looked fairly large (too large for a typical home bathroom) and were costly ($55,000 each) to construct. Mass production will be required before costs come down to a projected range of approximately $700 to $1000 each. These are “off-grid” toilets that do use electricity (can be from solar panels) but do not require water for flushing (they use membrane treatment of urine to produce flush water) and involve incineration to destroy the solid waste and pathogens. The discharge will be only pathogen-free ash. They may require water make-up if urine is insufficient (which could come from rainwater catchment). Operation and maintenance requirements, frequency and costs are still to be determined and were a key concern of workshop participants.

FP15B

One of the reasons that the workshop happened was the attendance of a Hawaii elected representative at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in November 2018 in Beijing, China. Rep Chris Lee (House District 51 Waimanalo to Kailua) was interested in these toilets as a possible alternative to cesspool replacements in Hawaii. Because all 88,000 cesspools in Hawaii must be replaced by 2050, there is interest in alternatives to septic tanks, ATUs, and absorption beds for cesspool replacements and the timeframe may be sufficient for these toilets to have an impact. The Beijing Expo was co-sponsored by BMGF and was designed to accelerate the commercialization of these new sanitation systems over the next decade.

FP15C


BMGF began in 2011 to invest in offgrid sanitation products. The emphasis is on pathogen-killing because of the overall aim of BMGF which is human health in the developing world. The idea is to develop “new, off-grid sanitation systems that could dramatically reduce the the global human and economic toll of unsafe sanitation, including the deaths of half a million children under the age of 5 each year and the more than $200 billion that is lost due to health care costs and decreased income and productivity.” The BMGF is investing in development of the technologies, but will not purchase/provide the systems to users, instead it is seen as an angel investor to get the companies started. They estimate a $6 billion global annual revenue opportunity by 2030. Additional information on the technologies which use nanomembranes, and mini incinerators, can be found on the web. https://stepsforsanitation.org

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Hawai‘i Water Environment Association
PO Box 2422
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96804
General Inquiries: info@hwea.org