作為微軟創始人和世界最著名的慈善家，比爾-蓋茨在北京召開的“新世代廁所博覽會”上，帶了一罐糞便上臺，大談廁所革命。他表示，基金會研究的新廁所無需連接下水道，能夠實現人類糞便降解滅菌，產出清潔的水和固態物質。

US billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates unveiled on Tuesday in Beijing a futuristic toilet that doesn’t need water or sewers and uses chemicals to turn human waste into fertilizer.

美國億萬富翁兼慈善家比爾-蓋茨本周二在北京推介了最新研發的未來派“新世代廁所”，無需使用水，也不用連接下水道，僅使用化學物質就能將人類糞便轉化為肥料。

The Microsoft Corp co-founder, who a day earlier was one of the high profile guests at a major trade event in Shanghai, also lauded the globalized and free trade systems that made the toilet technology possible.

作為微軟公司的創始人之一，蓋茨還在前一天亮相上海進博會，是本屆進博會的重量級嘉賓之一。他還稱贊了使這項“新世代廁所”科技成真的全球化和自由貿易體制。

“I honestly believe trade allows every country to do what it’s best at,” he told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

他在周二接受路透社采訪時說：“我確信貿易能讓每個國家發揮自己的專長。”

Twenty cutting-edge sanitation products were on display, intended to destroy harmful bacteria and prevent disease.

博覽會展出了20款高科技的衛生設備，旨在消滅有害細菌，預防疾病。

"I have to say, a decade ago I never imagined that I'd know so much about poop," Mr Gates joked at the conference. "And I definitely never thought that Melinda would have to tell me to stop talking about toilets and faecal sludge at the dinner table."

蓋茨在博覽會上開玩笑說：“我不得不承認，10年前我從沒想過我會如此了解人類糞便。我當然也沒有想到過，梅琳達會無奈地提醒我我不要在吃飯時討論廁所和糞便。”

比爾-蓋茨指出，這種綜合了多種創新技術的“新世代廁所”將成為未來廁所革命的關鍵環節，或能促進中國的“廁所革命”。

It is the first time Gates’ foundation has addressed an event in China. China is promoting a three-year “toilet revolution” to build or upgrade 64,000 public toilets by 2020 to help boost tourism and economic growth.

這是蓋茨基金會首次在中國舉辦的活動上發聲。中國正在推進為期三年的“廁所革命”，擬在2020年前修建或升級6.4萬個公廁，幫助提振旅游業和經濟增長。

蓋茨基金會在2011年推出了廁所創新大挑戰，在全球范圍內征集創新性方案解決衛生挑戰。過去的七年中，蓋茨基金會投入了兩億多美元，將大部分精力用來關注糞便處理的整個價值鏈，最終與合作伙伴共同開發新一代無下水道連接的廁所技術。

The toilet, which Gates said was ready for sale after years of development, is the brainchild of research projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s biggest private philanthropy organization.

蓋茨表示，在數年研發后，“新世代廁所”即將推向市場。這項新科技是全球最大的私人慈善機構比爾和梅林達蓋茨基金會資助的研究項目產物。

“The current toilet simply sends the waste away in the water, whereas these toilets don’t have the sewer. They take both the liquids and solids and do chemical work on it, including burning it in most cases,” Gates told Reuters.

蓋茨告訴路透社說：“傳統的廁所只是用水把排泄物沖走。而這種新廁所并不連接下水道。它們使用化學物質處理尿液和糞便，多數情況是燒掉它們。”

He compared the change from traditional toilets to waterless models as similar to development in computing around the time he founded Microsoft in the mid-1970s.

他將傳統廁所轉變為無水廁所的過程，與他在上個世紀70年代中期創立微軟時的計算力領域的發展相提并論。

“In the way that a personal computer is sort of self contained, we can do this chemical processing at the household level,” he said.

“就像個人電腦可以獨立運轉一樣，我們現在也可以在家庭層面化學處理糞便。”

Poor sanitation kills half a million children under the age of five annually and costs the globe over $200 billion a year in healthcare costs and lost income, according to the foundation.

蓋茨基金會的數據顯示，糟糕的衛生狀況每年導致近50萬名五歲以下兒童死亡。全球每年由于醫療成本增加和收入減少造成的經濟損失超過2000億美元。

Gates’ foundation has committed roughly $200 million to the toilet project and expects to spend the same amount again before the toilets are viable for wide-scale distribution.

蓋茨基金會已為“新世代廁所”投入大約2億美元，并預計在廁所大范圍投入使用之前，還將再投資2億美元。

“This year the volume of toilets will literally be in the 100s while people are still kicking tires (testing them),” Gates said.

蓋茨說：“今年這種新廁所的數量將達到100多個，還在試用期。”

蓋茨指出，在全球發展中國家中，有62%的糞便沒有得到安全管理。在沒有安全衛生設施的地方，環境中的病原體引發了腹瀉、霍亂、傷寒等疾病。

During a speech at the Beijing event, Gates held up a clear jar of human faeces to illustrate the importance of improving sanitation.

在北京舉辦的“新世代廁所博覽會”上，蓋茨在演講時，手持一罐透明杯子所裝的人類糞便，強調改善衛生設施的重要性。

“It’s a good reminder that in (the jar) there could be 200 trillion rotavirus cells, 20 billion Shigella bacteria, and 100,000 parasitic worm eggs.”

“要提醒大家的是，罐子里裝著200萬億個輪狀病毒，200億個志賀氏桿菌、還有10萬個腸內寄生蟲。”

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2.3 billion people around the world still don't have access to basic sanitation facilities.

根據世界衛生組織的數據，全球仍有23億人沒有基本的衛生設施。

This can cause diseases like cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery which kill hundreds of thousands of people every year.

這會導致霍亂、腹瀉和痢疾等疾病，每年有數十萬人因此死亡。

The entrepreneur described the inventions on display as the "most significant advances in sanitation in nearly 200 years".

蓋茨表示，博覽會上展出的發明創造是“近200年來衛生設備領域最重要的進展”。

Gates said the next step for the project is to pitch the concept to manufacturers, saying he expects the market for the toilets to be over $6 billion by 2030.

蓋茨說，下一步計劃是讓制造商了解這一概念，他預計到2030年，每年可在全球創造60多億美元商機。

The foundation has said they hope the reinvented toilet will first roll out in buildings like schools and apartment buildings, before costs gradually decline and they become affordable in households.

蓋茨基金會希望這種新廁所將首先在學校和辦公樓推廣開來，待成本逐漸降低后，普通家庭也可以承擔。

"You're only going to pay hundreds of dollars for a toilet - if it's really fantastic maybe $500," Mr Gates told the BBC.

蓋茨告訴英國廣播公司說：“可能花費只需要幾百美元，理想的話只要500美元（約合3465元人民幣）。”

來源：Reuters、BBC、參考消息網

翻譯&編輯：yaning