PARIS:
Ahead of World Environment Day, the French Senate has honoured Indian
social reformer and Sulabh movement founder Bindeshwar Pathak with the
'Legend of Planet' award for bringing about a toilet revolution in his
country and for liberating manual scavenges from the inhuman practice.
Senate vice-president Chantal Jourdan decorated Pathak and five others from across the globe with the honour at a reception the at Palais du Luxembourg on Monday night.
Hundreds of environmentalists from all over the world have gathered in the city for a three-day Green Games Congress organised at Unesco headquarters in Paris to discuss burning environmental issues.
While accepting the honour, Pathak termed it a recognition of his 40 years of service for the society" "It's honour for Indi"," he said.
Pathak is the founder of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation which is spearheading a toilet revolution in India using indigenously-developed, cheaper and eco-friendly technology. The eco-friendly Sulabh Sauchalya invented by him requires only one litre of water, thus directly conserving the environment.
Pathak is known around the world for his wide-ranging work in the sanitation field to improve public health, advance social progress and improve human rights in his home nation and other countries.
The Indian sanitation expert has previously been awarded the prestigious 2009 Stockholm Water Prize. The award, akin to a Nobel Prize on environmental issues, was presented to him by Prince Carl Philip of Sweden. He was awarded with Padma Bhushan by the Indian government, besides several other international and national awards.
Senate vice-president Chantal Jourdan decorated Pathak and five others from across the globe with the honour at a reception the at Palais du Luxembourg on Monday night.
Hundreds of environmentalists from all over the world have gathered in the city for a three-day Green Games Congress organised at Unesco headquarters in Paris to discuss burning environmental issues.
While accepting the honour, Pathak termed it a recognition of his 40 years of service for the society" "It's honour for Indi"," he said.
Pathak is the founder of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation which is spearheading a toilet revolution in India using indigenously-developed, cheaper and eco-friendly technology. The eco-friendly Sulabh Sauchalya invented by him requires only one litre of water, thus directly conserving the environment.
Pathak is known around the world for his wide-ranging work in the sanitation field to improve public health, advance social progress and improve human rights in his home nation and other countries.
The Indian sanitation expert has previously been awarded the prestigious 2009 Stockholm Water Prize. The award, akin to a Nobel Prize on environmental issues, was presented to him by Prince Carl Philip of Sweden. He was awarded with Padma Bhushan by the Indian government, besides several other international and national awards.
Sulabh Toilets Flush With Possibility
July 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment
In 1970, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak designed the sulabh sauchalaya
(latrines-pour-flush toilet with twin leach pit) and founded what is
now the Sulabh Movement. The movement is based on a simple idea that
proper sanitation and wastewater management is good for public health
and climate change. He announced
to the World Environment and Water Resources Congress at Providence in
Rhode Island that he will be promoting his invention around the world in
the coming years in an effort to help meet the Millennium Development
Goal of providing toilets to the 2.6 billion people who don’t have them
by 2025.Dr. Pathak said the sulabh system is ideal because it reduces water use and provides needed fertilizer for developing countries. In addition, it is a decentralized system whose technologies are not covered by any patents, so in a sense it is and open-source, eco-friendly technology.
The sulabh latrine, pictured above, consists of a squatting plate/ pan with an inclined bottom and side slopes along with a gas-trap and water-seal. The water-seal diverts gasses and microbes into leach pits rather than releasing them into the atmosphere. The latrine uses around 1.5 to 2 liters of water to flush the excreta into the leach pits through pipes and covered drains. Gases disperse and the liquid infiltrates into soil through holes in the pit lining.
One of the two pits is used at a time, with the second being used when the first is full. After approximately 18 months, the contents of the filled pit have been digested into manure- the pit is emptied and can be used again once the second pit is filled, allowing for continuous use of the same sulabh toilet system.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg-j-GxFWuw
He is focusing first on Ghana, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Laos, and Cambodia in the beginning stages of an ambitious plan to bring the technology to over 50 countries. These efforts will add to the over 7,000 public toilets already installed in India.
“In the 60s when I came on the scene in India, no house and no school had a toilet in rural India. In urban areas, 85 percent of people had bucket toilets in their homes cleaned manually or they used to go for defecation in the open.” — Dr. PathakAccording to him, the sulabh system has helped turn those numbers around, and now 63% people in urban areas and 57% in rural areas have access to toilet facilities.
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