On the occasion of World Toilet Day on November 19, American billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates went into the sewers to visit the Sewer Museum in Brussels. A video shared by Mr Gates on Instagram showed him walking through a sewer and exploring the hidden history of Brussels’ sewage system. The video also showed him meeting with scientists to understand the complex workings of the city’s water waste system. In particular, a 200-mile network of sewers and treatment plants processes the city’s waste.
“For this year’s #WorldToiletDay, I explored the hidden history of Brussels’ sewage system – and the role of wastewater in global health,” the video’s caption read. A text in the video reads: ‘I experienced it all in the underground museum of Brussels. Documentation of the history of the city’s wastewater system. In the 19th century, sewage was dumped into the Zenne River. This led to terrible cholera epidemics. Today, a 200-mile network of sewers and treatment plants processes the city’s waste.”
Watch the video here:
To raise awareness about sanitation issues, Mr. Gates has taken part in several public stunts, such as drinking water from “fecal sludge” in 2015. A year later in 2016, he posted a photo of himself smelling a giant odor sniffed. from the smell of latrines. He said “the stench was foul and made me shudder,” and described the smell as “a combination of sewage stench, barnyard sweat and bitter ammonia, topped off with vomit (or was it Parmesan cheese?).”
In 2018, the billionaire shared the stage with a cup of poop during a speech at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing.
The philanthropist is committed to solving a variety of global problems through his and his ex-wife’s charity The Bill and Melinda Gates.
In particular, World Toilet Day, celebrated annually on November 19, is about inspiring action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. It has been an annual United Nations celebration since 2013, but was first celebrated in 2001 by the World Toilet Organization. The theme this year is ‘Accelerated Change’.
The World Health Organization says inadequate availability of water, sanitation and hygiene leads to 8,27,000 deaths every year in low- and middle-income countries.
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