Our biogas digesters allow farmers to add manure from their cows and pigs to produce biogas and organic fertiliser. In other words, it is also a sewage treatment plant in the sense that it treats manure. In Japan, they have an advanced decentralised sewage treatment system called a Jyokasou. If human waste is treated in Jyokasou, there is no need for large sewage treatment plants. In less densely populated areas, centralised sewage treatment plants are not cost-effective, so like our biogas digesters, this Jyokasou is a very effective system.
According to data from 2013, nearly 40% of the poorest 20% from the bottom live in toilets, and around 20% live in simple toilets in Indonesia. In the next 20% of the poorest households, about 20% live without a toilet while the wealthiest households have almost no toilets at all. There's a big connection between poverty and toilet problems. In this case, the solution is either to provide toilets to the poor or increase the poor's economic wealth - the former is a short-term solution, the latter a long-term solution.
While poverty is relevant to many of the SDGs, there is a big difference between developed and developing countries regarding toilets. In developed countries, poverty and toilets are not as pronounced a problem. In other words, the sooner we solve the toilet problem, the better.
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