BILL GATES DRINKS WATER THAT WAS HUMAN WASTE

As part of his humanitarian work, Bill Gates has shown off a machine that turns human waste into potable drinking water--and put his money where his mouth is.

On his blog, Gates Notes, the former Microsoft CEO describes watching piles of feces being processed through a machine, boiled, treated, and then result in a glass of drinking water that he personally drank. The whole process is said to have taken about five minutes.

Click here to watch the video....

Water supplies in many poor countries are often contaminated with waste, causing diseases that kill 700,000 children each year and hurt many others. The blog is promoting the Omniprocessor, a Gates Foundation technology that is set to begin a pilot project soon in Dakar, Senegal. It uses a steam engine to make its power needs efficient enough to fuel itself, and even generates extra electricity along with the by-products of drinking water and ash. The processor also has a system of sensors that will allow its creators to help control it from afar during the pilot program.

"Our goal is to make the processors cheap enough that entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income countries will want to invest in them and then start profitable waste-treatment businesses," Gates said. "The processor wouldn’t just keep human waste out of the drinking water; it would turn waste into a commodity with real value in the marketplace. It’s the ultimate example of that old expression: one man’s trash is another man’s treasure."