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>View discussions about this entry Country: India
Organization: samata
Field of Work - Water
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2008
Project URL: HTTP://www.changemakers.net/user/rkrao
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Mothers and none others and point of use[POU] and not point of origin[POO]is the slogan for spreading use of safe water .
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - In all campaigns for providing drinking water , priority is generally given for locating water source,pumping to overhead tanks,centralized treatment or providing different types of low-cost water filters;these need considerable time,investment and often very complex maintenance and staff;while these are all commendable measures and to provide treated piped water to every human being should be the goal,,the fact remains that the over billion poor are drinking water today and every day, treated or not ,as none can survive without water ;my innovation provides for treatment of water here and now by supply of small sachets or 100 mll bottles of purifying agents, at prices affordable by the poorest of poor.a marketing model very successfully exploited in sale of shampoo,nut-powder,pickles etc in India;The CDC approved SAFEWAT at Rs 10/ to treat 1000liters[one nayapisa for liter]or the second generation PUR with 99.9% assured purity at 50 np per liter, is the solution to safe water to the poor;
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - SAFEWAT and PUR will be made available through village shops, delivered to the target households through NGOS,self-help groups,village forest protection societies ,village health workers and several such village level voluntary groups.
How do you plan to expand your innovation? - the scheme is yet to be grounded
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - What type of partnerships to do need? samata is net working with several other NGOS in tribal areas and is also running over forty primary schools.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - Reduction in water borne diseases and infant mortality from diarrhea.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - The focus will be on tribal communities being served by samata over the last decade;around hundred villages with a population of ten thousand.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - Reasserts the family as the unit for development and mother at the center of the family.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - Poor tribal communities in remote and often inaccessible forest areas
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - The initiative needs very nominal outlay of funding for a pilot project;once an assured and uninterrupted supply chain is in place,the beneficiaries can afford to purchase the reagents.
Provide information on your finances and organization: - Current Annual budget (2007 fiscal year)?
Annual budget for the past 1-2 years (2006 and 2005)? Annual revenue generated? What are your current sources and/or streams of revenue? Do you currently have sources of earned income (examples?); If not, why? This proposal is being sponsored in my individual capacity;samata is one of the organizations that will be drafted;many more will be involved. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - How do you estimate this demand?
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers): tremendous need-based demand exists. What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - I do not see any barriers .
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - In my search for bare essential improvements needed in the lives of the poor,i identified household as the unit for focus,mother as the center of the home;safe water as the first prerequisite for a healthy home;secondly provision of a smokeless stove,third in order a solar-powered stand-alone led lantern.
I found most government efforts in the drinking water mission are in sourcing water for the community through watershed schemes,rain-harvesting,small dams or creation of new sources,building infrastructure of pumping,overhead tanks,piped supply;many such schemes fail to meet the safe water needs of poor families;above all the importance of water purity at the point of use is not highlighted with the result that in cities like Mumbai and Banglore the quality of piped water leaves much to be desired due to its contamination with sewage; outbreaks of jaundice,diarrhea periodically are not uncommon. water-filters may meet the needs of the middle-clas,but not affordable by the poor,besides the fact they need maintenance;most poor fetch their daily needs of drinking water from springs[forest areas] or ponds and lakes,which are also used for washing clothes,cattle and humans; a method to treat the water presently accessible to the people affordable and stand-alone, appeared a viable solution;i found a convergence of my ideas with the CDC[Center for Disease Control] approach to the issue;thus this project developed. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - I served in the forest department in Andhra pradesh ,India for 30 years;after retirement i was with the Worldwide Fund for nature for four years,with the Blue-cross of Hyderabad for four years;presently helping a few NGOs in their activities.
Contact Information:
krishna rao
free-lance advisor samata (activist for tribal rights,education,nature conservation) Discussions about this entry |
MOTHERS FOR POINT OF USE WATER TREATMENT
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I noticed that you did not identify any barriers to financial sustainability although you state that financing is coming from your personal finances. What are your plans to finance and ultimately grow the program? Thanks.
Hello Krishna,
Based on your title, could you explain how mothers are involved in your work? Also, could you please explain more about your impact and success? How many sachets have you sold? What is the cost?
Thank you
Dana Frasz
Changemakers
Hello danafrasz,
In my presentation ,somewhere along the line ,i missed out on my focus on mothers;since mothers fetch water,use it for cooking,bathing infants and children i wanted that focus of all extension work should be directed to change the behaviour of mothers;the 'safewat' and narrow mouthed vessels etc are only the hardware in the programe,the real impact will be on activities like the importance of 'washing hands'.
"Human feces are the primary source of diarrheal pathogens"[UNICEF]
In the book 'better' by atul gawande[picador,2007] 14 pages were devoted to 'on washing hands';he writes as per CDC statistics'each year two million Americans acquire an infection while they are in hospital. ninety thousand die of that infection.......the one thing that consistently halts the spread of infections.wash our hands.'
If we can teach the importance of washing hands properly,we may be able to reduce diarrheal infection;WHO also states hand-washing can reduce this infection by 45%;hoW can hand-washing be developed into a business model required by the changemakers format !
my project is not yet grounded;i have tried the safewat in my home and find it a satisfactoy alternative to the more expensive boiling;but it does not exclude protozoans and 'PUR' which clears turbidity and protozoa and purifies water 99.9% is not marketed in INDIA.Ferric sulphate is the active ingredient for flocculation in PUR;alum can also do that.some trials are needed to formulate a sachet mixture that may reduce the cost from the present RS.5 for PUR.For a long time to come there is need for such simple sachet solutions to safe water production in rural areas and specially tribal areas.
Dr. Denis Byamukama
Faculty of Science
Makerere University
P. O. Box 7062
Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256 782 519315
Current Status: Staff
Dear Krishna,
You mention that most poor fetch their daily needs of drinking water from a variety of souces including springs[forest areas] or ponds and lakes, which are also used for washing clothes, cattle and humans. It is clear that these sources are very prone to contamination especially the fact that they are used by cattle. In your assessment of the effectiveness of the treatment or removal efficiency of the various microbial agents especially the resistant forms such as the spores of Clostridium species and protozoan cysts. In Uganda, we have a similar product called Water Guard, and in the immediate future, i plan to conduct tests on its ability to treat water in relation to the highlighted microbial agents. The manufaturers and promoters of these products are often silent about the limitations of these products in relation to the type/source of water to be treated by the specific product.
Otherwise, thanks for the innovation, i believe household/point of use approaches is the way to go since it is not easy to have all people who are currently lacking access to safe water getting connected to centrally treating piped networks.
Dear Dr,Denis,
It is true SAFEWAT does not act on clostridum and protozoan cysts;but according to observations of CDC most diarrhea is caused by virus and bacteria;however PUR treatment ensures effective action against these, as well as remove turbidity of water;As the saying goes' the perfect is the enemy of the good';let us put into the hands of the poor a stand-alone agent that purifies water they are drinking today;it should be affordable and available,if not at their door-step; a piped water supply often opened with great fanfare by a VIP at the best provides a public tap and the women,mostly mothers have to Q up and wait for the release of the water at some unspecified time,thus creating Qs even in villages.
If we are sensitive to the needs of the disadvantaged ,we should provide amenities that they can access in their homes;schemes that need their going to some place in the village or outside do not take into consideration their time energy;often in a poor home,the mother has to fetch water first in the morning,cook food with firewood collected the previous evening on way back from work and feed children and rush to her work,mostly as casual labor of low wages.