by -
Bill Gates said in a LinkedIn post Saturday that he’s done “weird crap” in his life.
-
The philanthropist recalled the times he smelled a pit latrine and stood next to a “cup of poop.”
-
In 2015, he also convinced TV presenter Jimmy Fallon to drink water made from “faecal sludge.”
Bill Gates says in a LinkedIn post Saturday to mark World Toilet Day that he’s done “strange crap” in his life.
Linking to a July blog post, the Microsoft co-founder wrote, “I’ve done some weird crap over the years: I’ve drank fecal water with Jimmy Fallon, shared the stage with a jar full of human feces, and smelled pit latrine smells. “
“These antics drew a few laughs, but my goal has always been to get people to care about an issue that affects 3.6 billion people: poor sanitation,” the philanthropist added. “Thanks to scientists and engineers from around the world, we are getting closer to new solutions that will prevent diseases and diseases.”
He is co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a non-profit organization that he co-founded with his ex-wife that aims to reduce poverty, disease and injustice around the world.
Gates’ LinkedIn post focused on an issue close to his heart: access to restrooms and safe sanitation. “Life without a toilet is more than an inconvenience. It is dangerous. Unsafe sanitation means contaminated water, soil and food. They cause disease and death,” he wrote on his blog in July.
To raise awareness, Gates shared the stage with a cupful of feces during a speech at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing in 2018.
Two years earlier, he noticed “a huge whiff of a pit latrine smell” at Firmenich, a family-owned fragrance and flavoring company based in Geneva, Switzerland. He said “the stench was foul and made me wince,” and described the smell as “a combination of sewage stench, barn sweat, and bitter ammonia, topped off with vomit (or was it parmesan cheese?).”
In 2015, he convinced TV host Jimmy Fallon to drink water made from “faecal sludge” after Gates examined the Omniprocessor, a machine that converts feces into water and electricity.
“I watched the feces go up the conveyor belt and fall into a large container. They made their way through the machine, were cooked and treated,” Gates said at the time. “A few minutes later, I savored the final result: a glass of delicious drinking water.”
Watch a clip of Bill Gates and Jimmy Fallon here:
Read the original article on Business Insider
