From here:

Some of these funds will be used to spur innovation in sanitation science and technology, which includes the capture and storage of human waste, as well as its processing into reusable energy, fertilizer, and fresh water. To learn more about some exciting “Toilet 2.0” concepts, check out our Grand Challenges Explorations and Reinventing the Toilet Challenge fact sheets.

We recognize, however, that we can also do more with existing solutions. As Rose George emphasized last week, progress is being made on community-led efforts to end open defecation. So we are supporting initiatives to improve and scale-up these successful approaches.

Finally, we need to support creative new approaches to policy and advocacy that take an unapologetically direct approach to poop and the huge pile of problems that it creates. We hope that the video we have created for our launch helps to break the silence of the “last taboo.” Enjoy!

I'll be the first to call this plan simply shitty.

You'll notice the relatively extreme bias in this video at around the 0:53 mark when they begin to talk about flush toilets and infrastructure. If you notice how they make basic sewage look exceptionally complex.

I don't disagree with the water viewpoint. But sewage infrastructure is "increasingly hard to come by?" Infrastructure isn't a natural resource you mine or scavenge from the forest. It either exists or doesn't exist.

Outside of composting and incineration, you're going to have some pretty significant problems with anything involving electricity. And if these people lack things like running water or even basic drainage, chances are there's probably not any reliable sources of electricity.

Most of the technology companies over the last two decades were more interested in trying to electrify the third world. And there was some quite loud critics that handcrank laptops don't really cure diphtheria or typhus. So, naturally I'm a little skeptical that this is just another brazen but covert attempt to dump gadgets in communities that can't handle their demands or even lifecycles.

These charities seem to casually look over the fact that sanitation keeps literally millions of people employed in the U.S. whether they're plumbers or trashmen. Unstable economies and a lack of prospects is what keeps many from investing in the world's poorest countries.

Of course, this new found pressure on development only comes after the fact that China is bringing running water, sanitation and electricity to millions of people around the world.