to reinvent the toilet.

To raise awareness of this challenge,

I've shared a stage with a jar of human feces.

“...a container of human feces.”

I've taken a giant wiff of pit latrine odor.

“Terrible.”

I drank water made from fecal sludge.

And I convinced some friends to drink it too.

“Thank you, buddy.”

All of these stunts got some laughs,

but my goal was to draw attention

to a serious problem: poor sanitation.

More than 500,000 people die every year

from sanitation-related diseases.

But this problem can be solved.

In the decade since the launch

of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge

the world has responded with  the power of innovation.

Creative minds from across the globe

developed hundreds of new and exciting ideas

for how to design toilets

and process human waste

with little or no need

for water and electricity.

Toilets that convert human waste

into valuable resources,

including fertilizer, biochar and electricity.

And a new system to process

fecal sludge from pit latrines,

septic tanks and sewers

that turns human waste

from entire communities into electricity.

What's exciting is that over the last decade,

many of these promising concepts

have gotten more efficient and affordable.

Challenges remain to get  these innovations to market

so that they can transform the lives

of the billions of people who need them.

But I'm optimistic about the progress

we can make in the next 10 years and beyond.

What inspires me most is  the dedication and passion

of the people who've come  together to answer this call.

Governments, researchers,  businesses, philanthropies

and communities are working together

to embrace smart approaches to safe sanitation,

especially in slums and other  underserved communities.

Together they are leading a sanitation revolution.

It can't happen fast enough.