The brilliant female engineers changing SA's sanitation scenario

Lack of sanitation is one of the world's leading development challenges. Globally, around two billion people don't have access to appropriate sanitation, with around a billion of them having no toilet.

Provision of a hygienic sanitation solution, coupled with regular handwashing and access to clean, drinkable water, is known to have marked improvements on community health.

Readers of the British Medical Journal ranked clean water and safe sewage disposal as the most important medical milestone in the last 150 years. A World Health Organisation report released in 2007 indicated that it would be possible to receive an estimated US$9 return on investment for every US$1 by halving the number of people without access to appropriate sanitation. The report suggested that achieving that target would mean around 190 million annual diarrheal diseases could be averted globally.