Bill Gates 'smelled pit latrine odour' and shared stage with a jar of poop

Bill Gates takes a whiff off a latrine pit. (Image credit: Gates Notes)

Bill Gates admits to having done "some weird crap over the years". He has drunk water from fecal sludge -- slurry that contains both solid and liquid waste which accumulates in systems such as septic tanks -- and even smelled the stink caused in latrine pits.

But the Microsoft founder did it all for a social cause.

"I drank water from fecal sludge with Jimmy Fallon (US comedian), shared the stage with a jar of human feces, and smelled pit latrine odor," Gates wrote on LinkedIn.

One of the incidents that Gates was referring to happened in November 2018, when he brandished a jar of human waste at a forum on the future of the toilet in Beijing to draw attention to a problem affecting developing countries around the world: not enough toilets.

"These antics got a few laughs, but my goal has always been to get people to care about an issue that impacts 3.6 billion people: poor sanitation. Thanks to scientists and engineers from around the world, we’re getting closer to new solutions that will prevent disease and illness," Bill Gates said.

In his blog Gates Notes, he further added that about 3.6 billion people -- equivalent to nearly half of the world’s population -- lack toilets or use unsafe sanitation.

"Living without a toilet is more than an inconvenience. It’s dangerous. Unsafe sanitation means contaminated water, soil, and food. It causes illness and death," the Microsoft founder noted.

"According to the latest estimates, diarrhea and other sanitation-related diseases kill nearly 500,000 children under the age of five every year."

The billionaire philanthropist, who has been working towards researching and providing better sanitation solutions, had also partnered with Samsung in September to create a prototype waterless toilet for household use that turns solid waste into ashes.

The toilet was developed as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Reinvent the Toilet Challenge which started in 2011 and sought proposals for toilets that safely and effectively manage human waste.

Read more: Bill Gates recommends 5 of his all-time favourite books for holiday reading