Hawaii Pacific University graduate Emily MacNintch and her boyfriend Nick Holvik could one day soon be happier than pigs in, well, poop, if they win the $50,000 prize in "Expedition Granted."

The couple’s entry in the National Geographic contest, titled "Poop Out of Poverty," would use toilets to reduce poverty, improve sanitation, provide economic opportunity and enhance education in India, for starters.

Lending credibility to their effort, Holvik cited a similar effort for Madagascar and sub-Saharan Africa being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Honolulu couple’s dream expedition would be to set up bio-digester, composting toilets in a country where 60 percent of the population relies "on open defecation," MacNintch said in her contest entry.

An area resident would operate the communal toilets as a business, not by charging people to use them, but by making money off the, um, byproducts of the operation: methane for energy, and compost for agriculture, they said.

Better sanitation will have wide-ranging benefits for any area that has the toilets, the pair said.

Education will improve because public health will improve, and school attendance will increase, Holvik said.

Diarrhea kills 5,000 children daily and is the second-leading killer of children in the world, MacNintch explains in the video entry. A majority of the deaths could be prevented simply through better sanitation, she said.

MacNintch and Holvik became aware of the $50,000 possibility about a year ago, and since then, scholarship-funded travels inspired the project and their video entry.

MacNintch went to Costa Rica for an educational program about sustainable living, "and they had the toilets there. And it’s really weird, it was the toilet that motivated me to go for the class," she said.

"Then Nick and I got a scholarship to go to an economic summit in Shanghai," she said.

MacNintch majored in environmental studies with a minor in economics, and Holvik has an economics degree.

At a Shanghai session Holvik attended, a prominent attorney spoke of the huge sanitation problem in Africa and India, how they don’t have infrastructure for Western-style sewage and septic systems. The speaker "made a call to entrepreneurs to think of an idea that could solve the problem without running water," he said.

He immediately thought of MacNintch.

"It feels like we were meant to do it," she said. "There’s such a small chance to have gotten scholarships to that class and that both of us would be there to have those ideas come together."

Coincidentally, MacNintch learned that her birthday, Nov. 19, had been declared World Toilet Day. "I guess the (United Nations) created it to raise awareness of sanitation problems," she said.

The communal, bio-digester composting toilets can be built for "about $70 U.S.," Holvik said, and one communal system would be able to serve a community.

MacNintch and Holvik are among 10 finalists proposing their own dream expeditions for public voting online.

Other proposals include an effort to save rhinoceroses from extinction; a proposal to map a volcanic conduit system; and a 50-state quest to get more people to join the bone marrow donor registry.

Finalists were selected based on the originality of their proposed projects, a project’s ability to make an impact on the local or global community, as well as the project’s viability.

"The passion and ingenuity that went into the hundreds of videos submitted for consideration were truly inspiring," said Courteney Monroe, National Geographic Channel chief executive officer, in a statement. "The 10 selected finalists really embrace our vision of pushing boundaries and forging new paths with their thoughtful submissions. We welcome the public votes to help narrow down our ultimate winner and 2014 Expedition Granted Explorer."

The contest is being staged by the National Geographic Channel, the National Geographic Society, 21st Century Fox and sponsors, and online voting will continue through Sept. 29, with the winner to be announced Sept. 30.

"At the end of the day, even if we’re not lucky enough to gather enough votes, we’re glad to be able to help spread awareness of the issue, and we feel good that we can help. We’re happy with where we’ve gotten so far," Holvik said.

If they are not the ultimate winners, they still may pursue their mission.

"If any partners want to reach out, let them know that they can," MacNintch said.

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On the Net:

» expeditiongranted.nationalgeographic.com/project/poop-out-of-poverty

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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.