LIXIL Corp. (LIXIL) has announced that its SATO business will be funded under the Urban Sanitation Challenge, a program of the Water Innovation Engine. The LIXIL SATO is one of five projects to be funded through the Urban Sanitation Challenge. The program, led by Grand Challenges Canada, was launched in September at the UN General Assembly meetings in New York.
The LIXIL SATO is a line of toilet and sanitation products specifically tailored for rural and peri-urban communities with difficulties accessing safe sanitation. The products are designed to automatically and reliably seal open-pit latrines with a self-closing trap-door that minimizes odors and the passage of disease-carrying insects, making the toilet more pleasant to use. The first SATO toilet was developed in 2012 by the LIXIL American Standard brand. There are now 1.2 million units in use, improving sanitation for 6 million people around the world.
SATO products are currently commercially available in four countries – Bangladesh, Uganda, Kenya, and India. The CAD $1 million of funding will help LIXIL scale up SATO to reach an additional 15 million people, enabling manufacturing and distribution of SATO products in Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia, Haiti, Ghana, Malawi, and the Philippines. This will take the company a step closer to reaching its goal of bringing safe sanitation to 100 million people by the end of 2020 — and improving worldwide access to basic sanitation by 4 percent.
Jin Song Montesano, executive officer and senior managing director, LIXIL Group comments, “SATO seeks to scale its operations and to develop the means to reach the millions of rural and peri-urban consumers currently living without access to safe and adequate sanitation. Funding from Grand Challenges Canada will have an impact on our ability to achieve these goals. That funding represents a vote of confidence in the SATO team’s approach to sanitation solutions.”
A second project to receive funding uses another of LIXIL’s innovations. The Laguna Water project in the Philippines utilizes LIXIL’s Portable Toilet System, an in-home sanitation solution designed for dense urban informal settlements that lack sanitation infrastructure. The system is being field-tested to offer disadvantaged households an odorless toilet from which human waste can be collected and treated.
The Urban Sanitation Challenge recognizes projects that tackle the impact of poor sanitation on health, the environment, and the economy through cost-effective solutions. It is an initiative of the Water Innovation Engine, which was formed in in response to a 2016 Call to Action from the eleven Heads of Government and State and Special Advisers who make up the UN / World Bank High Level Panel on Water (HLPW). The challenge is supported financially by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, and a host of other partners.
Dr. Peter A. Singer, chief executive officer of Grand Challenges Canada comments, “The lack of sanitation has a disproportionate impact on vulnerable women and girls and leads to diarrhea, death and delayed child development. Investing in safe urban sanitation is key to advancing gender equality, and to ensure the health and well-being of women and children.”