Problem: In the event of a natural disaster, a person’s most basic needs — food, water, shelter and electricity are often compromised. One necessity often overlooked is the availability of working toilets.

Solution:

For those affected by natural disasters, Tokyo-based design company nendo has designed a simple, innovative portable toilet kit that can be assembled using found materials and can be completely dismantled for easy transportation.

The toilet kit named minimLET, comprises of six items: a toilet seat, aluminum pipes, nylon tent cloth, pocket tissues, garbage bags and coagulant. The minimLET toilet can even have multifunctional parts: aluminum poles can be used to prop up the toilet seat or support the nylon tent, which can also function as a poncho. And the bag that contains the kit is impermeable and can be used as a 16-liter bucket.

When living in evacuation shelters in contemporary urban spaces, various everyday items and waste materials are also available to use. The kit’s structure takes up very little space and can also be supported with a plastic umbrella, tin cans, or plastic water bottles (prototype below).

Stakeholders:

NGOs, Municipal authorities, Communities lacking access to basic and safe sanitation

Implementation:

• Partner with NGOs and governments for outreach, training and to disseminate toilet kits in areas with need
• Find industrial manufacturers and investors willing to partner for scalability of the product
• Continue to search for new ways to build and use easily available items in designing multifunctional products for evacuation shelters

Article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nendo-designs-portable-toilet-natural-disaster-victims-160945907.html

uni: hps2120

Comments:

Robotic Nurse Assistant – RIBAI still feel that when it comes to nursing care, no robot can replace a human care! Hope they work and feel as good! However for lifting purposes levers could be used instead. Robots sound best in doing complex surgeries..