When a disaster hits, toilets are needed just as urgently as food and water. If water and sewage systems stop functioning, so do flush toilets, and the resulting deterioration of sanitary conditions affects people’s health and psychological well-being. Here, we introduce a Japanese startup that has taken on the challenge of ensuring access to toilets that work during disasters as well as in normal times.
TAKANAMI Masamitsu, CEO of e6s Ltd., who says, “I want to solve toilet problems not just in Japan, but throughout the world.”
Did you know that if even one of the three crucial services of electricity, water, and sewage disposal stops functioning, most flush toilets become unusable? In Japan, it’s said that portable toilets take at least three days to reach disaster areas—an interminable period for victims facing a lack of functioning toilets. Reports show that people in this situation tend to minimize their use of unsanitary toilets by reducing food and water intake. But suppressing one’s need to use the toilet can itself lead to health problems.
“In a world where technology has made amazing advances, isn’t it strange that we can’t solve disaster-related toilet problems? That thought was the catalyst for my decision to start this company,” says TAKANAMI Masamitsu, CEO of e6s Ltd. In the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, he witnessed firsthand how people were forced to endure unsanitary conditions as toilets became unusable due to water outages. Professor NAKANO Kazunori of the College of Engineering at Nihon University, which collaborates with e6s on research, personally experienced the quake in Sendai, where he encountered the same issues with flush toilets. That disaster provided the incentive for collaboration in developing infrastructure-independent, self-sufficient flush toilets and putting them to actual use.
A portable toilet (center) installed for use at an event and the e6s system connected to it (right). The case holding the system is a compact 1,200 mm high, 600 mm wide, and 400 mm deep. The system can operate solely on electricity generated by the small solar power unit placed in front of it.
What makes the e6s toilet system revolutionary is its ability to separate and process waste and toilet paper into solids and liquids. While this may sound like a simple feature, it is one lacking in the pit-latrine portable toilets typically installed during disasters. With the e6s system, solids are collected by filters, thoroughly dehydrated, and reduced to about 1/12 their original volume. The liquid is purified to a state in which no odors or E. coli bacteria are detected, then returned to the water tank for circulation as flush water. Solar power provides the electricity needed for the circulation process, allowing the flush mechanism to function even during power outages. One filter can handle 100 uses and is easily replaced by anyone, with no technical expertise required.
If this system is connected to a regular toilet in advance, it can process waste through the existing infrastructure in normal circumstances—then, if a disaster renders that infrastructure unusable, a simple turn of a valve switches over to the e6s system, effortlessly maintaining a sanitary toilet environment virtually identical to normal conditions.
In addition to this “phase-free” unit—one that functions in normal and emergency conditions alike—the company has developed a vehicle-mounted unit. This makes it possible to transport an e6s system with toilets on a truck to wherever it is needed. Each truck unit has the capacity to handle thousands of uses. The phase-free version has already been installed at a multipurpose convention facility in Fukushima Prefecture and at a public toilet in Chofu City, Tokyo. Installation of the e6s system with toilets in such locations as public facilities, train stations, convenience stores, and gas stations should significantly increase the comfort and peace of mind of people in times of emergency.
A vehicle-mounted unit with two toilets connected to an e6s system on a truck. Clean and comfortable flush toilets can now be transported to places without functioning toilet infrastructure, as long as they are accessible by truck.
The e6s company further proposes that toilets serve as information hubs during disasters. By linking e6s units to disaster prevention apps that provide status updates and safety confirmation data, residents of disaster-affected areas could be notified of locations with usable toilets. Other services like mobile phone charging and supply distribution notifications could also be included. Thus, toilet facilities would become gathering places for information sharing. As Takanami points out, “Everyone needs to use the toilet, so people naturally gather there. Toilets make an excellent hub for expanding assistance to disaster victims.”
Interest in the e6s system is also growing overseas. Inquiries have come in from countries lacking adequate flush toilet infrastructure in Africa and Asia, as well as mountainous regions of Europe. Born in disaster-prone Japan, the e6s offers a solution for any part of the world struggling with toilet sanitation issues. Access to clean, safe toilets helps disaster victims maintain not just their dignity but their health, contributing to their very survival. The e6s solution is a step toward fixing problems encountered not only where disasters strike, but across the globe in even the best of times.
