It’s a contest. It’s all in good, clean fun. Literally.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has decided to combat the world’s sanitation problem head on—and they have asked for help.

Their goal? To build the world’s most ecologically advanced toilet.

“The current design has a real problem. It uses a lot of water, requires a very expensive system to bring in very clean water, then you make that water dirty…You have a very expensive system to take it away and then you have a treatment plant and actually the water you are using there is almost ten times as much as you use for direct human consumption.”

–Bill Gates

The contest rules are pretty specific. The toilets “must operate without running water, electricity or a septic system, not discharge pollutants, preferably capture energy or other resources, and operate at a cost of five US cents a day.”

We applaud the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for using its resources to create a better and sanitary world.

—Rachel

(Photo Credit: AFP)