比尔•盖茨的慈善基金会致力于开发新一代节能厕所。
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation wants to reinvent the toilet.

Bill Gates wants to reinvent the toilet
  比尔•盖茨致力于开发新一代节能厕所
  

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world, is now making efforts to reinvent the toilet.
 比尔•盖茨，微软公司的共同创办人，同时是世界最富有的人之一，如今正致力于开发新一代的节能厕所。
 

Gates has donated a big part of his wealth to charity. Now his charitable organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is looking for future toilets that can improve the living conditions of millions of people.
盖茨捐赠了他大部分财产给慈善事业。现在他的慈善组织，比尔和梅林达•盖茨基金会，正在寻找未来的厕所，一种能够改善几百万人生活环境的厕所。

The flush toilet we use today was invented in 1775. While it works well in getting rid of our waste, it also uses a lot of water and needs a costly sewage system. Besides, it’s not necessarily practical for the developing world.
我们如今大量使用的厕所发明于1775年。虽然它工作得很好，冲走了污物，但是它同样浪费了很多水，需要造价很高的下水道排污系统。另外，对于发展中国家来说，这也是不实用的。

In some developing countries, lack of toilets leads to poor hygiene, and that could kill people. According to the World Health Organization, 1.5 million children under the age of five die each year because of hygiene problems.
在很多发展中国家，厕所短缺导致了严重的卫生问题，这能杀死人。根据世界卫生组织调查发现，5岁以下的儿童由于卫生问题死亡的人数高达150万。

Last year, the Gates Foundation gave grants to eight universities around the world and asked them to start inventing the toilet of tomorrow: a toilet that uses little or no water, is cheap and easy to install, and is safe and hygienic.
去年，比尔和梅林达•盖茨基金会给世界8所大学提供助学金，希望他们开始发明新一代的厕所：一种用水少或者不用水，便宜，易于安装，安全，卫生的厕所。

At the “Reinvent the Toilet Fair” competition recently held in Seattle (西雅图), 28 designs were displayed. The winners, from the California Institute of Technology (加州理工学院), were awarded a $100,000 prize by the Gates Foundation.
西雅图最近举办了一场比赛“改造厕所展览会”，展示了28个设计。比尔和梅林达•盖茨基金会授予了来自加州理工学院的获奖者10万美元的奖品。

“We couldn’t be happier with the response that we’ve gotten,” Bill Gates said at the event. Many of the new designs would not only greatly improve hygiene in the developing world, but also help change the dependence on traditional flush toilets in developed nations, he added.
那时，比尔•盖茨说：“我们收到消息时，感到很开心。”他另外表示，很多新的设计不仅能够改善发展中国家的卫生情况，而且能够改变发达国家过度依赖传统厕所的情况。”

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