IndiaCSR News Network
Mumbai: L&T Technology Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Larsen and Toubro, announced today that it has signed an agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work as part of their Sanitation & Hygiene program.
As per this partnership, L&T Technology Services will consult with various grantees who have been working extensively with the Foundation to assess their unique toilet design prototypes and provide solutions for sustainable designs to make them ready to market. The first of these projects will begin targeting India as a destination.
In the developing world, 2.5 billion people practice open defecation or lack adequate sanitation facilities; an additional 2.1 billion urban residents use facilities that do not safely dispose of human waste.
In such a scenario the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has joined hands with many research institutes worldwide including India to bring standalone sanitation facilities to developing countries and tackle this growing and alarming crisis. L&T Technology Services will work on the prototypes to make them sustainable solutions supporting the process of sanitation from waste collection and disposal to energy conversion. The approach will be to make the prototypes more affordable, robust as well as designed to be manufactured with help of local manufacturing facilities.
Speaking on this esteemed opportunity to be associated with the foundation on their endeavour to improve hygiene and waste management, Dr. Keshab Panda, Chief Executive, L&T Technology Services, stated “L&T as a culture believes that the full measure of growth, success and progress is best reflected in the difference that business make to the lives of people. During the years L&T has been associated with government agencies and NGO’s to provide assistance in the areas of health, education, environment conservation, infrastructure and community development. In India hygiene and disposal management remain a big environmental hazard. It has been a long and enduring problem that needs immediate attention. We, as a part of this culture are happy to be associated with the foundation in this noble venture and provide our technical services in every possible way we can.”
More information about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation can be found by visiting their website at www.gatesfoundation.org
