# Expanded presentation speaking notes Allocated timing, not a measured rehearsal. ## 1. How to build the most scalable and sustainable public toilet model Hey everybody. I've spent years of my young life thinking about public toilets. A fairly unreasonable amount of time, honestly. Let me take you to a street beside Hussain Sagar. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 2. The street I grew up with. Growing up, I'd come here almost every weekend. Loads of people, something to eat, somewhere to walk. But the toilet was the part you wanted to avoid. Think about women, families and older people. A good public space has to let people stay. Allocation: 20 seconds. ## 3. Let's build it. So, how do we build a public toilet model that scales and lasts? Let me build the idea with you. Here's our street: a food stall, rubbish and inadequate toilet provision. First, clear the rubbish and repair the walking surface. Then put in one integrated LooCafe. The shop is at the front; the toilets are along the side and toward the back. Now give it a clear entrance, signs and some planting. The shop brings an everyday business into the facility. And the panels above it can bring advertising income. The point is to connect the design with a way of keeping it working. Now let's look at the real thing. Allocation: 55 seconds. ## 4. This is the standard LooCafe. This is Banjara Hills. One structure, with different jobs. The shop faces the street. The toilet entrances are along the side. Advertising sits above. But the toilet is the reason the whole thing exists. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 5. Inside the toilet: privacy, fixtures and finish. Look inside: privacy, a washbasin, fixtures and finishes. The public toilet has to feel like somewhere you can comfortably use—not somewhere you need to escape. Allocation: 12 seconds. ## 6. “Make sure that it looks really awesome.” Make sure that it looks really awesome. That's the standard we want to set. Aspiration belongs in public infrastructure too. Allocation: 10 seconds. ## 7. The entrance is part of the toilet. The experience starts at the entrance. Can you find it? Is the approach clear? Safety and access begin on the street. Allocation: 10 seconds. ## 8. What makes the model worth repeating? These are the values I mean. A usable toilet, a safe approach and privacy. A viable business. Someone checking the work. And a proper destination for the wastewater. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 9. The front shop helps fund the toilets behind it. Why the shop? Because cleaning costs money every day. The business and advertising income help support the toilets. There's also someone present whom you can ask for help. But the toilet is at the forefront. The operating agreement has to connect the business with that responsibility. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 10. ACCOUNTABILITY Look at the ceiling. This is why accountability matters after opening day. These photographs come from the Dog Park maintenance report. Who notices the fault? Who arranges the repair? Who checks the work? That's the system we need around the building. Allocation: 20 seconds. ## 11. The operator knows what is due today. This is our actual operator app, using a test account. Cleaning photographs, shifts, maintenance and the handbook are right there. A clear daily routine on the operator's phone. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 12. Turn a problem into a maintenance ticket. Here's an example entered into the actual app: a leaking tap. Describe it, add photographs, and give the next person something concrete to act on. Reporting starts the process. Following it through is the responsibility. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 13. Open the record. Inspect the photographs. And here's the real dashboard photo review. Open the unit's record and inspect the photographs. The record makes the condition visible; follow-up makes accountability work. Allocation: 12 seconds. ## 14. A livelihood, with responsibility. This is Asif, from Toilet Tales. He paired a Mini with bike repair, using skills his father taught him. His day began with toilet care, then repair work. That's agency: a business and responsibility for a public service. Allocation: 20 seconds. ## 15. LooCafe Mini: a smaller unit, the same responsibility. Look at the Mini from both sides. The counter faces the street and the toilets sit beside it. The small format still needs access, water, cleaning and a suitable wastewater route. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 16. Mini: what fits, and what still needs space. The website describes an eight-by-eight-foot Mini with two toilets. That is the product description, not the total site allocation. An accessible approach, utilities and maintenance still need space. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 17. Toilet Tales: a place to earn. Reuf had run an electrical shop. His Toilet Tales profile describes moving into a LooCafe stall and caring for the washrooms daily. It is a specific livelihood story, not a fixed-income promise. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 18. Toilet Tales: care is work, every day. Mahboob found work at a stall after losing his job during the pandemic. His profile records washroom care twice a day. This work needs clear responsibility and support. The account describes employment, not ownership. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 19. LooCafe Mini: a shop and toilets in one small unit. Here is another Mini in its real street setting. The shop and the toilet are part of one small unit. Look at the entrance and the space around it, not just the box. The footprint may be small, but access, cleaning and a wastewater route still have to work. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 20. DRNF: free chai beside public sanitation. The same physical format can also support a different service model. These DRNF-branded counters offer free chai alongside public sanitation. The photographs show the counter and toilet access together. Free chai is a service commitment; we should explain who funds and operates it rather than assume the usual retail economics. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 21. Different streets. A repeatable service. The format changes with the site: a Mini, a larger unit, a different business alongside it. Repeat the service principle, then adapt the physical design. Allocation: 12 seconds. ## 22. Our footprint: different cities and settings. Here are different LooCafe settings: Mangalagiri, Chennai and Mumbai. The footprint is more than a number. Space, users and operating conditions change. The model has to travel with a maintenance plan, not just a container. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 23. From Hyderabad parks to Dal Lake. Here it is beside Dal Lake. Different surroundings bring different access and utility constraints. The site plan has to work as carefully as the toilet design. Allocation: 12 seconds. ## 24. Scalability starts in the workshop. Scalability starts in the workshop: repeat the fabrication, fit the interior, prepare the components. Then match the product to the site. Commissioning and operations make it a working service. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 25. LooCafe’s published city footprint. These are the cities plotted on our website. The dots show city-level presence, not every toilet address. This published footprint differs from the live register and from the subset with ReFlow treatment. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 26. But where does the flush go? Now come back to the street. At NTR Marg, our April 2023 letter reported a Mini moved just ten metres, with no drain connection at the new spot. The container moved. The sanitation problem came with it. These CPCB figures show the wider treatment challenge: a historical national baseline, not our results. So where does the flush go, and who keeps that route working? Allocation: 30 seconds. ## 27. The same street. The sewer beneath it. Look below the same street. A sewer carries wastewater away, but it still needs working downstream treatment. This cutaway explains the connection; it is not a survey of the pipes under Lumbini Park. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 28. Bring treatment to the site. That's where ReFlow comes in. Here is Lumbini Park and a factory equipment view. Treatment becomes part of the toilet infrastructure, returning water for a defined use: flushing. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 29. The public side and the service side. There are two sides to this design. The user needs a good cubicle. The maintenance team needs to reach the tanks, pumps and pipework. Both have to work. An attractive enclosure with equipment you can't service is an unfinished design. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 30. The treatment stages—and the return to flushing. Let me take you through the water. First, collection and regulation: manage the incoming flow. Then biological treatment. Anaerobic and aerobic stages use microorganisms to reduce the pollutant load; aeration supports the oxygen-dependent stage. Further treatment and disinfection prepare the water for flushing reuse. In the selected BCRT manual, the electrochemical reactor provides additional treatment when the load is high or the effluent is unstable. That's why it's shown as a conditional branch. Finally, the reuse tank and pump return water to flushing. This is a functional explanation of the documented configuration. The important thing is that each stage has a job, and the operating conditions have to support that job. Allocation: 55 seconds. ## 31. The engineering is in the operating limits. This is why the technology is more than a box in a container. We have to commission the biology, then increase the load in stages. Tank-level controls connect to pump and UV operation; the manual describes suspending use when required. Even cleaning has to work with the treatment process, so the operator needs a compatible cleaning protocol. The hardware, operating conditions and daily routine all have to work together. Then we sample the water and check the result. Allocation: 35 seconds. ## 32. ReFlow issues can be tracked by component. This ReFlow dashboard example shows the maintenance workflow with demo records. Name the affected component, set the priority and track the status. That's how a plant issue becomes a task someone can take responsibility for. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 33. BCRT: read the specification before sizing the site. These numbers belong to the forty-foot, seven-cubicle manual. They cannot be used as the rating of a different installed unit. Installed power is not daily energy use. Match the equipment schedule and commissioning record before quoting site capacity. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 34. BCRT maintenance needs access and trained people. The service passage is not leftover space. Someone must inspect equipment, reach valves and replace failed components. Cleaning the cubicle and maintaining the plant are linked jobs, with different skills. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 35. A loop has responsibilities. The water returns to flushing. The loop still needs makeup water, power, consumables and a residuals route. Measure the whole system: how much returns, how reliably, and what it costs to keep working. Allocation: 20 seconds. ## 36. Measure the difference. Our team reports around 400 people a day before launch. Now I want to turn that activity into measured impact: reused water, freshwater makeup, energy, treatment quality and availability. Then add the operator's income and the whole-life cost per use. Those are the numbers a city needs to decide where this service should go next. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 37. One unit becomes a managed network. Pull back to a network: an operator at each site, maintenance coverage, treatment checks and city oversight. The product repeats. The responsibility has to repeat with it. Allocation: 15 seconds. ## 38. Citywide sanitation uses more than one treatment route. A city needs several routes: suitable sewers, appropriate local treatment, and managed residuals transport. ReFlow belongs within that wider network. Choose the route for the site. Allocation: 12 seconds. ## 39. The market: different ways to fund and run a toilet. This compares operating approaches, not brand rankings. Municipal and pay-per-use toilets can work well. Retail and advertising can support access. ReFlow adds treatment duties; it still needs an operator and maintenance budget. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 40. Standard LooCafe and LooCafe with BCRT. Standard LooCafe is the facility and business model. BCRT adds treatment. Both need daily care. The plant also needs commissioning, sample results, technical maintenance and a residuals route. Choose the configuration for the site. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 41. The business has to pay for the service. Sales are not profit. Look at what remains after running the shop. Add committed advertising or service payments. That income must cover toilet operation, plant care and a replacement reserve. Build the business case site by site. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 42. PPP: agree who provides what. PPP means public-private partnership. Name what each side provides, who carries each risk, how the service is paid for, and what happens when standards are missed. Agree the allocation for the actual project. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 43. A contract can cover years of service. The August 2020 GHMC certificate describes a fifteen-year concession including operation and maintenance. It describes thirty-six locations but lists four completed. This is evidence of a long-term structure, not a current deployment count. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 44. Karnataka: procure the whole service. For Karnataka, this is the conversation I'd like us to have. Choose the site and the right treatment route. Name the operator and budget for ongoing care. Verify treatment quality, reuse and availability before scaling. Circular sanitation belongs in policy as a service we fund and measure, alongside the city's wider sewered and non-sewered network. Allocation: 30 seconds. ## 45. Karnataka: start with sites that need a service. Start where a usable toilet is missing or unreliable. Check demand, access, utilities and the wastewater route. Some sites suit Standard, some Mini, and some may justify local treatment. Do not prescribe the same box everywhere. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 46. Karnataka: put the operating duties in writing. Who opens it? Who cleans it? Who handles a failed pump? Put those duties in the agreement, alongside escalation, inspections and replacement funding. That makes accountability something we can act on. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 47. Karnataka: measure the pilot before expanding. The first sites must answer the questions for the next ones. Was the toilet usable? Did treatment meet the requirement? What did it cost? Keep records over the same period, then choose where to expand. Allocation: 25 seconds. ## 48. A better city starts here. For me, this still comes back to that street: a place where people can stay, a toilet they want to use and a system that keeps working. Come and visit us. Let's look at what it takes to make this work for Karnataka. Allocation: 15 seconds.