不用冲水也不连下水道 盖茨在北京推介“新世代厕所”

作为微软创始人和世界最著名的慈善家，比尔-盖茨在北京召开的“新世代厕所博览会”上，带了一罐粪便上台，大谈厕所革命。他表示，基金会研究的新厕所无需连接下水道，能够实现人类粪便降解灭菌，产出清洁的水和固态物质。

US billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates unveiled on Tuesday in Beijing a futuristic toilet that doesn’t need water or sewers and uses chemicals to turn human waste into fertilizer.

美国亿万富翁兼慈善家比尔-盖茨本周二在北京推介了最新研发的未来派“新世代厕所”，无需使用水，也不用连接下水道，仅使用化学物质就能将人类粪便转化为肥料。

The Microsoft Corp co-founder, who a day earlier was one of the high profile guests at a major trade event in Shanghai, also lauded the globalized and free trade systems that made the toilet technology possible.

作为微软公司的创始人之一，盖茨还在前一天亮相上海进博会，是本届进博会的重量级嘉宾之一。他还称赞了使这项“新世代厕所”科技成真的全球化和自由贸易体制。

“I honestly believe trade allows every country to do what it’s best at,” he told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

他在周二接受路透社采访时说：“我确信贸易能让每个国家发挥自己的专长。”

Twenty cutting-edge sanitation products were on display, intended to destroy harmful bacteria and prevent disease.

博览会展出了20款高科技的卫生设备，旨在消灭有害细菌，预防疾病。

"I have to say, a decade ago I never imagined that I'd know so much about poop," Mr Gates joked at the conference. "And I definitely never thought that Melinda would have to tell me to stop talking about toilets and faecal sludge at the dinner table."

盖茨在博览会上开玩笑说：“我不得不承认，10年前我从没想过我会如此了解人类粪便。我当然也没有想到过，梅琳达会无奈地提醒我我不要在吃饭时讨论厕所和粪便。”

A man looks at a toilet design by Cranfield University at the Reinvented Toilet Expo showcasing sewerless sanitation technology in Beijing, China November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter 比尔-盖茨指出，这种综合了多种创新技术的“新世代厕所”将成为未来厕所革命的关键环节，或能促进中国的“厕所革命”。

It is the first time Gates’ foundation has addressed an event in China. China is promoting a three-year “toilet revolution” to build or upgrade 64,000 public toilets by 2020 to help boost tourism and economic growth.

这是盖茨基金会首次在中国举办的活动上发声。中国正在推进为期三年的“厕所革命”，拟在2020年前修建或升级6.4万个公厕，帮助提振旅游业和经济增长。

盖茨基金会在2011年推出了厕所创新大挑战，在全球范围内征集创新性方案解决卫生挑战。过去的七年中，盖茨基金会投入了两亿多美元，将大部分精力用来关注粪便处理的整个价值链，最终与合作伙伴共同开发新一代无下水道连接的厕所技术。

The toilet, which Gates said was ready for sale after years of development, is the brainchild of research projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s biggest private philanthropy organization.

盖茨表示，在数年研发后，“新世代厕所”即将推向市场。这项新科技是全球最大的私人慈善机构比尔和梅林达盖茨基金会资助的研究项目产物。

图片来源：盖茨基金会

“The current toilet simply sends the waste away in the water, whereas these toilets don’t have the sewer. They take both the liquids and solids and do chemical work on it, including burning it in most cases,” Gates told Reuters.

盖茨告诉路透社说：“传统的厕所只是用水把排泄物冲走。而这种新厕所并不连接下水道。它们使用化学物质处理尿液和粪便，多数情况是烧掉它们。”

He compared the change from traditional toilets to waterless models as similar to development in computing around the time he founded Microsoft in the mid-1970s.

他将传统厕所转变为无水厕所的过程，与他在上个世纪70年代中期创立微软时的计算力领域的发展相提并论。

“In the way that a personal computer is sort of self contained, we can do this chemical processing at the household level,” he said.

“就像个人电脑可以独立运转一样，我们现在也可以在家庭层面化学处理粪便。”

图片来源：盖茨基金会

Poor sanitation kills half a million children under the age of five annually and costs the globe over $200 billion a year in healthcare costs and lost income, according to the foundation.

盖茨基金会的数据显示，糟糕的卫生状况每年导致近50万名五岁以下儿童死亡。全球每年由于医疗成本增加和收入减少造成的经济损失超过2000亿美元。

Gates’ foundation has committed roughly $200 million to the toilet project and expects to spend the same amount again before the toilets are viable for wide-scale distribution.

盖茨基金会已为“新世代厕所”投入大约2亿美元，并预计在厕所大范围投入使用之前，还将再投资2亿美元。

“This year the volume of toilets will literally be in the 100s while people are still kicking tires (testing them),” Gates said.

盖茨说：“今年这种新厕所的数量将达到100多个，还在试用期。”

盖茨指出，在全球发展中国家中，有62%的粪便没有得到安全管理。在没有安全卫生设施的地方，环境中的病原体引发了腹泻、霍乱、伤寒等疾病。

图片来源：盖茨基金会

During a speech at the Beijing event, Gates held up a clear jar of human faeces to illustrate the importance of improving sanitation.

在北京举办的“新世代厕所博览会”上，盖茨在演讲时，手持一罐透明杯子所装的人类粪便，强调改善卫生设施的重要性。

“It’s a good reminder that in (the jar) there could be 200 trillion rotavirus cells, 20 billion Shigella bacteria, and 100,000 parasitic worm eggs.”

“要提醒大家的是，罐子里装着200万亿个轮状病毒，200亿个志贺氏杆菌、还有10万个肠内寄生虫。”

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2.3 billion people around the world still don't have access to basic sanitation facilities.

根据世界卫生组织的数据，全球仍有23亿人没有基本的卫生设施。

This can cause diseases like cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery which kill hundreds of thousands of people every year.

这会导致霍乱、腹泻和痢疾等疾病，每年有数十万人因此死亡。

The entrepreneur described the inventions on display as the "most significant advances in sanitation in nearly 200 years".

盖茨表示，博览会上展出的发明创造是“近200年来卫生设备领域最重要的进展”。

Gates said the next step for the project is to pitch the concept to manufacturers, saying he expects the market for the toilets to be over $6 billion by 2030.

盖茨说，下一步计划是让制造商了解这一概念，他预计到2030年，每年可在全球创造60多亿美元商机。

The foundation has said they hope the reinvented toilet will first roll out in buildings like schools and apartment buildings, before costs gradually decline and they become affordable in households.

盖茨基金会希望这种新厕所将首先在学校和办公楼推广开来，待成本逐渐降低后，普通家庭也可以承担。

"You're only going to pay hundreds of dollars for a toilet - if it's really fantastic maybe $500," Mr Gates told the BBC.

盖茨告诉英国广播公司说：“可能花费只需要几百美元，理想的话只要500美元（约合3465元人民币）。”