TRENDY BUSINESS: THE DIGITAL FUTURE OF SANITATION BUSINESS

Digitally delivered incentives are highly scalable, powerful behaviour change engines and an excellent source of profitable revenues smart toilet networks can produce big health & consumer & logistics data & insights.

“India’s Prime Minister has committed to building 100 Smart Cities. This will be a multi-billion dollar growth area with a potential of $1 trillion estimated to be invested to achieve all 100 smart cities. A high density of public and community toilets could be valuable and integrate well into smart city solutions.” James Caton LARSEN & TOUBRO

Digital will transform toilets. There is big data potential in health, digital incentives and logistics that is ripe for innovation. The Internet of Things (IoT) and toilet case studies provide an important signal that this is possible.

Sanitation is going to be different than where it is today. How fast the future comes, will depend on us. Corporate powerhouses like Google, Salesforce, Kimberly- Clark, Firmenich and Autodesk are working on technologies that, partnered with theses toilet innovations and local entrepreneurs, could transform our sector. Early adopters like Samagra, Garv and Sanergy are working with and preparing for greater implementations of technology within their services, both from mobile payments to CRM to logistics and transportation management systems.

Samagra tested a digital coupon incentive programme successfully across 15 locations. They have government contracts to for 300 locations in 2017 that would serve 300,000 daily users. They will be leveraging the digital platform across the network.

Sanergy, Garv and Saraplast are three early toilet entrants into leveraging the IoT. Sanergy is working with Sweet Sense sensors to introduce just in time logistics into their decentralised toilet network in Kenya. Garv

and Saraplast use it to manage remote clean teams as well as to monitor the location of their mobile toilet assets. Large players like Larsen & Toubro indicate that toilet networks could be a useful part of a smart city infrastructure plan, while IBM Watson sees toilet health data as a potential big win.

“Today, products from KCC are designed to collect bodily fluids (mucus, menses, urine, feces, etc.), contain them hygienically so they may be disposed of properly. We see an opportunity to create `smart products’ that can extract data to understand a person’s health and nutrition needs, or using infant feces as a source of microbiome for irritable bowel syndrome, or menses as a source for stem cells, as well as intelligent restrooms that help improve the cleanliness, supply, and performance of restrooms around the world.” Pete Dulcamara Kimberly- Clark Corporation

“Having sensors placed in toilets so you know how many users have used a flushing system & hygiene practices of the community to be able to design a behaviour change and communications plan.” Mayank Midha, Garv

“Information we could have in the WASH sector is wasted. If we are using paper, spreadsheets, emails etc, data is wasted when it is a valuable resource. We need to figure out how to gather it and turn data into information. Our platform is free. Larger organisations like WaterAid fill in the platform in the way that they need and then they share it to the rest of the world. We need feedback on what tools would work for you, the service providers.” John Feighery, Mwater

“Information - the toilet has something you can get information from and act on it. We want to provide that information with the services we have and enabling the people in remote areas to create their own infrastructure without needing to wait for someone to come and do it for them.” Pritam Pebam, Google

“We use CRM, RFID and now e- commerce. We have portable toilets all over the city. Cleaning of the toilets is very important, Smell- o-meter technologies are in process. The customer needs to get a clean toilet everytime. GPS location, the customer gets a message to tell them if and when the toilet was cleaned. We have developed a pilot in Pune, old buses converted into female toilets, with shower rooms and e- commerce inside the buses, sanitary napkins etc. If you want to order something online, if the bus is on a street where shops have medical supplies, we have an app and it can be delivered on the bus. The bus is the medium for the e- commerce marketplace! “Rajeev Kher 3S-SARAPLAST

“We serve over 900 facilities everyday. We plan to grow fast. We have to do frequent collection, but toilets are not always used in the same way (e.g. not used in schools on Sunday) so we partnered with GSMA to put sensors into our facilities to know when they have filled up. We seek to optimise our waste collection which is a huge cost driver. We are running a pilot now which we hope to expand if all goes well.” David Auerbach, Sanergy

“We have a sensoring mechanism that sits in the toilets. Our service team have maps on their phones. All information goes to a web platform. Managers can distribute information and track assets. As part of the app the toilet resources in the containers are scanned.” Iain Purves, Loowatt.