NEW YORK: A Malaysian eco-social inventor and entrepreneur is set to take the stage against the backdrop of the United Nations General Assembly in New York to present her sustainable toilet solutions.
Zuraina Zaharin's system, dubbed Ecoloo and developed with her Swedish business partner Imad Agi, has been selected as among the 10 groundbreaking innovations which will be presented at the Solutions Summit 2016.
The Solutions Summit highlights outstanding innovations which offer solutions towards addressing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
The 10 selected innovators will present their solutions to an audience of senior policymakers and industry leaders.
Zuraina's solution beat out more than 850 other applications from 110 countries for a spot at the summit.
The Ecoloo is a sustainable toilet that employs bio technology and special bacterial culture to treat human waste, offering people a safe, hygienic, ergonomic and economical comfort station.
The Ecoloo, she said, enables users to collect odour-free and pathogen-free organic fertiliser and minimises the use of water.
“Most WCs today consume too much clean water and energy for flushing and produce huge carbon emission during transportation of waste from the bathroom to the sewage treatment plant," she said.
Ecoloo, she said, benefits both users and stakeholders via savings on hidden costs such as water consumption and treatment, as well as maintenance of the sewage plants themselves.
To date, the Ecoloo sustainable solution has been deployed in 17 countries. It will be officially launched in December.
Zuraina said she was proud of having contributed to the field of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).