Damir Brđanović, a professor at the Institute for Water Education (IHE) in the Dutch city of Delft, was recently awarded a great honor: he was named an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau, which is a high honor of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that has been awarded since 1892 to people who “have made an outstanding contribution to the community for extraordinary achievements at work, surpassing others in their field and going beyond what would normally be expected of someone in their particular job”.
The award was presented to Professor Brđanović by Jan van Zanen, Mayor of The Hague, on behalf of His Majesty the King of the Netherlands.
Damir Brđanović, professor of sanitation at IHE Delft, “is a scientist with the creativity of an inventor and the mindset of an entrepreneur. His innovations provide practical sanitary solutions in some of the most complex humanitarian situations. In addition to restoring dignity to exiles and displaced persons in natural disasters and war conflicts, his work has significantly contributed to preventing the spread of disease and ultimately saving lives,” said the explanation for awarding this award.
In 2019, Slobodna Dalmacija published an extensive interview with the Croatian professor from Sarajevo in which, among other things, he said that his ideas were recognized by Bill Gates.
“The Gates Foundation has donated about 26 million dollars to my scientific research fund so far, which my team and our partners use to create scientific and educational innovations. For example, after several years of development and testing in practice in the Philippines and Kenya, our team designed the so-called eSOS Smart Toilet, a smart toilet intended primarily for refugee camps,” said Brđanović in an interview.
On that occasion, he also spoke about another innovation, a medical toilet designed by him and his team, called MEDiLOO: it is a toilet that uses modern sanitary infrastructure and the latest technology for the early detection of diseases such as cholera, malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, etc. The idea was rated as revolutionary, with the potential to prevent the suffering and death of millions of people due to the early detection of the symptoms of vicious diseases.
All these innovations, as well as the Shit Killer, a technology that turns fecal sludge into dry fertilizer using microwave processes, were mentioned in the explanation of the decision to award Professor Brđanović a high royal award. The importance of, for example, the Shit Killer innovation is best illustrated by Brđanović’s words from the mentioned interview: “Many are only now discovering that sanitation is a big potential business and that faeces and urine are not waste but resources, since they contain a large amount of water, organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus”. He stated that the energy value of one kilogram of dried feces is about 20 MJ (megajoules), which is roughly equal to the energy value of a kilogram of brown coal.
In the justification for the appointment as an officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau, it was also stated that Professor Brđanović has received numerous awards for his outstanding contribution, that he is an extremely active scientist, author, co-author and editor of at least 250 publications, including ten books, and that “his work continues to shape global sanitary practices, connecting innovation, education and research to solve some of the world’s most pressing public health challenges”.
