CREATIVITY SPECIAL ...........................Awesome New Ideas For A Better Tomorrow (5) - A Toilet That Needs No Plumbing

Awesome New Ideas For A Better Tomorrow (5) - 

A Toilet That Needs No Plumbing

Life-saving gadgets, safer ways to travel, solutions for sanitation and cost-effective answers to everyday problems… India has a host of good ideas just waiting to explode. See what’s bubbling under

We scouted the length and breadth of the country to find the brightest innovations. The list continues

5. A Toilet That Needs No Plumbing

IDEA: The Banka Bioloo

BRAINCHILD OF: Namita Banka

NID graduate Namita Banka, 41, had been working with the Indian Railways to solve its sanitation problems on trains when she came across the bioloo technology on India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation website. “I was organising a women’s fair in Hyderabad and we wanted an organic toilet, but every company who makes it, sells it for Rs. 4 lakhs a unit. There was a need for an affordable one.” So she adapted the DRDO technology and now makes bioloos from recast concrete cement which cost only Rs. 25,000.

This is how it works: the bathrooms are fitted with a bio tank, which collects the waste and treats it with bacteria so it’s converted into biogas (which can be used as fuel) and water (which can be recycled or discarded). This means no clogging, and no waste on railway tracks, which, reports say, was corroding the rails. Banka also installs loos at construction sites, schools and colleges.

STATUS:

The Banka Bioloo is already installed on some Indian trains. If you travel from Lucknow to Delhi on the Gomti Express, you’ll know that it’s doing its bit for nature. By 2022, the Indian Railways aims to install the bioloo on all trains.

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