Japanese company hopes to save lives with simple toilets

Japan is known for its toilets sophisticated with sound effects, cleaning jets and deodorant systems but a local company hopes, with a very simple bowl, to reduce the serious health problems badociated with the lack of toilets in developing countries, in partnership with Unicef.

More than two billion people do not have access to the most basic sanitation facilities and children are particularly vulnerable to diseases that can spread in the absence of hygienic toilets.

Lixil Company Developed Latrines Sold for a few dollars, make an oblong-shaped plastic bbadinet that can fit into the toilet floor "at the Turkish". The bowl is equipped with a valve that closes automatically to prevent attracting insects that spread disease and avoid odors.

This company is currently forming a partnership with Unicef, the United Nations agency children, who will promote these toilets called SATO, in hopes of saving lives.

Such a partnership will take advantage of Lixil's "commercial capabilities, technology, knowledge and innovation", said Andres Franco, deputy director of Unicef ​​for the private sector.

Under the agreement, Unicef ​​will publicize SATO toilets in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, said Lixil President Kinya Seto, with the goal of helping 250 million people access adequate toilets by 2021.

Some 2.3 billion people around the world do not have access to the most basic toilets, including 892 million of people who "It deprives people of their dignity and exposes them to life-threatening diseases," said Shanelle Hall, Deputy Executive Director of Unicef ​​on Thursday. a joint press conference with Lixil. "In fact, every day, dirty water, poor sanitation, and inadequate sanitation cause the deaths of some 800 children under the age of five."

Lixil has already sold about 1.8 million SATO toilets in 15 countries since the release of this product in 2013. Mr. Seto hopes to expand its sales through Unicef ​​"which has a credibility and a network around the world, that we do not have (…) to give children have access to toilets ".