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Hi, I'm Jason, and my passion is the toilet. I'm not a plumber though -
what i do is I bring toilets to people living in developing countries through my startup Toilets for People.
2.6 billion people around the world don't have a place to go to the bathroom.
And while that may not sound like a big deal to people who have gone camping before,
in the developing world that can be a matter of life and death.
Besides the lack of privacy and dignity, especially for women,
going to the bathroom by the side of the road or in the river can make whole communities sick.
Two thousand children die every day from preventable diseases like cholera and severe diarrhea,
and the problem is getting even worse in flood-prone areas. In the past seven years,
I've been to places like Peru, El Salvador, and Haiti with Engineers Without Borders and with Toilets for People,
and the sanitation situation is not pretty. In flood-prone areas,
the only option people have are these double-vault latrines that fill up in a year or two and then they get abandoned,
which isn't sustainable at all. If you live in the U.S. in an area where you can't put in a septic tank,
you just buy a compositing toilet off the shelf; the problem is that those cost $1500,
which is way too expensive for families that are living in developing countries.
What we've done is we've created a simple, easy-to-use, affordable composting toilet that works for these underserved communities.
We call it The CRAPPER. The cost? $200.
With The CRAPPER, Toilets for People is introducing a market-based solution to a worldwide problem.
And when the water rises, The CRAPPER will be high and dry, and will never risk contaminating drinking water.
The CRAPPER provides privacy, safety, comfort, and dignity;
that's what everybody wants and what everybody deserves.