When we consider the newest improvements or breakthrough applied sciences, we glance as much as the skies. In latest years, as a species, we’ve repeatedly stretched our boundaries by going additional and additional into house. India’s Mangalyaan and Chandrayaan made it to their locations, SpaceX’s reusable rockets are ushering in a brand new period of reasonably priced house exploration, and sometime quickly, we’ll consider a everlasting moonbase in the identical means that we consider the International Space Station.

Wherever we go, there are a couple of primary issues we all the time have to unravel: meals, water, shelter, and waste administration being on the high of that record. The wonderful thing about house is that it includes the creation of closed loops, which, by definition, are both zero waste, or as close to zero waste as they are often. How we resolve waste administration and sanitation in house can have some nice purposes on Earth, significantly in areas which can be distant, or the place the geography challenges us to construct in a different way.

Why would we use house bogs and sanitation programs on earth?

For these of us who reside in effectively linked cities with ample water provide and good municipalities, the thought feels absurd. But India is a land of mountains and plains and deserts and flood basins. We have effectively linked cities and distant villages. We have areas the place we will’t construct as a result of they’re too distant, or set too excessive within the Himalayas, or the place it rains an excessive amount of or rains too little. This is the place the advances made in house may be tailored to actual world options for underserved communities.

Space missions want environment friendly and dependable programs for managing waste, recycling water and guaranteeing hygiene in excessive environments. These programs should be compact, light-weight, energy-efficient and adaptable to completely different circumstances. Seen from that lens, why wouldn’t we adapt these applied sciences to be used again right here on Earth?

Real world use instances for house know-how in sanitation

Water Purification

Today, many superior water purification programs use membrane filtration, ultraviolet radiation, catalytic oxidation and electrochemical processes to take away contaminants and pathogens from water, producing clear water for ingesting, washing and irrigation. These programs are based mostly on the technologies used to recycle water on the International Space Station (ISS) and different spacecraft. The ISS employs a state-of-the-art water recovery system that recycles a formidable 93% of the water current on board, even together with sources corresponding to urine, sweat, and condensation. Back on Earth, this know-how may help us purify decrease grade water to make protected, potable water obtainable to communities that might in any other case should do with out.

Waste as Fuel for Energy Generation

Over the years, NASA has funded tasks to discover the usage of microbial fuel cells to generate electricity from waste organic material. In easy phrases, this know-how makes use of microorganisms corresponding to Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 to transform waste natural materials (together with human waste) to electrical energy via organic processes. The coronary heart of this breakthrough is the microbial gas cell, a bio-electrochemical machine producing “inexperienced vitality” whereas addressing wastewater remedy.

One notable success story emerges from Kisoro, Uganda, the place the implementation of this know-how, aptly named ‘Pee Power‘, is using electricity generated from urine (using microbial fuel cells) to light up the toilet blocks and the roads and pathways leading to them. This has yielded social and health benefits for the community in various ways. Girls and women who hesitated to use the toilets at night due to safety concerns and fear of attack, can now do so with ease. 85% of women reported feeling safer using toilets, and this has resulted in much better health and fewer rates of infections and disease for these women, particularly during the vulnerable periods of menstruation and pregnancy.

Similar ideas are being explored in India as well. In fact, with India’s growing concentrate on renewable vitality, significantly vitality era from biomass wastes, tasks like these may be the proper match from an ecological, coverage and social worth perspective. India has already had monumental success in creating bathroom entry via the Swachh Bharat Mission. The subsequent logical step lies in enhancing these services via the proper applied sciences and drive consumer adoption.

As the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Swachh Bharat Mission found, creating toilet access is just one part of the solution, the other lies in creating the behavioural change necessary to drive adoption, particularly in rural areas where these toilets can feel daunting for people who have never used them before. However, communicating the health benefits to the community, in addition to making these toilets easy to use and clean, will go a long way in achieving the dream of a Swachh and Swasth Bharat.

Fortunately, the GoI can count on numerous partners in this effort. Harpic, India’s leading brand in the lavatory care segment has championed the cause of toilet hygiene for decades now, through innovative and thought provoking campaigns and outreach programs. Harpic, together with News18, also created the Mission Swachhta aur Paani initiative 3 years ago. It is a movement that upholds the cause of inclusive sanitation where everyone has access to clean toilets. Mission Swachhta aur Paani advocates equality for all genders, abilities, castes and classes and strongly believes that clean toilets are a shared responsibility.

Under the aegis of Mission Swachhta aur Paani, Harpic has reached out 17.5 million children across the nation via their partnership with Sesame Workshop India to promote positive sanitation, hygiene knowledge and toilet behaviours among children and families through schools and communities. Through Harpic World Toilet Colleges, Harpic is also changing the way sanitation work is viewed, uplifting the entire profession, and creating dignity and safety for sanitation workers.

Moreover, through Mission Swachhta aur Paani, Harpic is creating a platform for the right stakeholders to come together to ideate and explore creative solutions to our problems today. These stakeholders range from elected officials to grassroots organisations, academics to social workers, innovators, sanitation workers, and affected communities.

These conversations are only the beginning, and there is much work yet to be done, and many innovations yet to come. Join us here to be a part of one of the most important transformations in the world today, as we make our way to becoming a Swasth and Swachh Bharat.