Groasis Waterboxx 

The Water box mimics the way a seed grows when a bird poops. The dung keeps the water from evaporating which allows the seed to grow. This design mimics that with a plastic housing. Smart!

DRIPS Project

 This project gathers dew that collects on the broad funnel shape and delivers it right to the roots of a plant.

Nature that collects dew 

(Source:Optimal Design of Permeable Fiber Network Structures)

Namib Desert Beatle
Grass in the region of the desert beatle
Tree canopies with slender leaves
Spider webs

Why This is Important

The WaterBoxx is based on biomimicry which I think is a great concept we have not explored yet. Also the DRIPS project was inspired by the dung beetle how it gathers dew from the desert floor every morning.

Sources: 

Groasis waterboxx: Anti-desertification technology for planting in dry, eroded and rocky areas. (2014, January 1). Retrieved November 14, 2014, from http://www.groasis.com/en

The D.R.I.P.S. Project. (2014, January 1). Retrieved November 14, 2014, from http://dripsproject.com/

Park, K., Chhatre, S. S., Srinivasan, S., Cohen, R. E., & McKinley, G. H. (2013). Optimal design of permeable fiber network structures for fog harvesting. Langmuir : The ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids, 29(43), 13269-13277. doi:10.1021/la402409f

Neat idea: Building a soccer stadium designed to harvest rainwater in African countries which integrates a love of football with clean water. They also utilize ex-military parachutes as pre-built rainwater harvesting systems as they already have a hole in the center and are made of rip-stop nylon which can take the weight of water.


Why This is Important:
This is taking architecture and applying it to a new context as well as repurposing an old material for a new task instead of designing a high-tech device that can do it.

Source:
Pitch Africa. (2007, January 1). Retrieved November 6, 2014, from http://pitch-africa.org/#!about-pitch/

One of the many waste materials available in the world is animal waste and with the Maasai's main culture in herding animals comes with a potential abundance of animal waste as well. Each cow, for example can contain approximately 8 gallons of blood.

 An architect graduate by the name of Jack Munro has realized the potential and developed a concept called blood bricks. These bricks replace mud and water with blood and sand, then a preservative is added, shaped and baked for 160 degrees F for an hour and out comes a stable waterproof brick. This concept is a potential venture into reducing the usage of water as brick making requires a large amount of water that is later wasted when it evaporates into the air while the bricks are in the kiln. It also utilizes a cost-effective, ready-made waste material.

The main problem however is if this concept is considered taboo as some animals, notably the cows, are prized and whether or not the usage of their blood would be a welcomed concept. Another is the unknown of how much potential blood is available in Longido. Questions arise such as "Do the Maasai regularly use their animals for food?" and "Would they accept the concept, using the blood waste in bricks?" or even "Is this concept of more value to the people of Longido than just using regular bricks?". Technical problems arise as well as it is still unknown whether or not these bricks are at least as strong as regular bricks created in Longido. Hopefully these will be answered in the future.

Blood Bricks Are on the Bleeding Edge of Construction Tech. (2012, October 1). Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://gajitz.com/blood-bricks-are-on-the-bleeding-edge-of-construction-tech/

Life Style

For breakfast they eat a thin water and wheat mix, similar to cream of wheat. For their other meal they like to eat ugali which is a thick mashed potato-like of water and flour and they like it a lot. Sometimes they eat rice or beans and they are starting to add kale or cabbage to their meals alongside the ugali if it’s available at the market and their finances at the time. In markets they have roast beef and they will enjoy a goat at special occasions such as the birth of a child of for a wedding.

Water Taps

Tap water in Longido is for domestic use (drinking water, cooking, washing, anything in the house) as well as some livestock use. The livestock are usually walked out of Longido to a well or open area to graze and get water.

While the women are standing in line they usually socialize and talk. The length of time they stand in line for depends upon the flow of the water that day. If it’s low they go and get 5 buckets, then another 5, then if there’s enough they get more up to a maximum of 22 buckets per day (during the rainy season; during the dry season they may be able to only collect around 5 buckets worth). A typical wait is about half hour to 45 minutes for someone who lives closer to the tap.

The public tap is used all year round and villagers can access it on their designated days. There is a person who regulates the tap in the village.

Hafirs


There is a permaculture project that has hafirs (a demonstration project) that is run by Testigo Africa in Longido and also in Kimokouwa. The villagers do not personally have hafirs, right now they are just a demo project. They were very pleased with the demo hafirs, but Virginia is concerned about how long the hafir will last when Testigo stops directly supporting them.

On Livestock and Agriculture

In the Maasai culture livestock is a HUGE cultural tradition. It’s their livelihood and way of living. The men have their identity in their livestock, they also determine their wealth and status by the number of livestock they own. It’s all about livestock. For a man to sell a cow it’s a huge step. They don't typically sell livestock because it’s how the man sees himself and it’s part of his identity. Selling part of his herd would be to lose his status and identity.

The Maasai currently don't have much agriculture because it’s dry, and the land is very hard to do agriculture on. It’s not been a part of their way of life and is just starting to become accepted now. As they become more settled and educated the community recognizes the value of having vegetables in their diet, and growing their own vegetables will reduce the cost of going and buying vegetables at the market. They will be looking for ways to have small scale gardens that will support them in their everyday living.

They currently plant sukuma wiki (which is a kale like veggie), carrots, onions, tomatoes, and papaya trees. They have tried with little success a cucumber or egg plant (but you need a lot of knowledge to grow these successfully).

Vegetables are planted by hand or with a hoe or small shovel. They have tried bag gardens. To make a bag garden you toss the plants and gravel in the centre and cut slits in the bag and try carrots or onions this way. It's nice because you don’t have to dig, but not very successful because many of the homes are shared with the livestock, so the goats come and eat the veggies from the side of the bag leaving nothing for the household. Some have also tried a raised bag garden (about 2 feet off the ground) or a raised traditional garden.

Most of the grown vegetables are for consumption for their own family, and the excess may be sold. A couple of women may have 10-20 tomatoes or a few carrots to sell and create a small business. One woman was doing quite well selling her vegetables, (which saves her a lot of time traveling to market to get them herself). She was growing them on a 10’ x 6’ plot of land.

There is fertile soil about 4 feet down but it’s too pricey to access that soil because the ground is too hard. The Maasai of Longido are all about the WATER and LIVESTOCK because that is their culture.

Open farming is a challenge because it’s very susceptible to animals that wander around and the elements.

They do not have terrariums.

Garbage

Garbage is not repurposed in Longido formally – but they do use everything to their maximum as there is so little (rubber used to tie things to a motorcycle, clothes worn then used as rags then as ties). Though there are artisans in Arusha that do it, but not formally in Longido itself.

They have no garbage collection or anything, everyone is responsible for their own waste. They dig a hole near their house and everything goes into that hole. Some people are into composting, but often everything gets tossed into the same pit and gets burned. After it builds up a new one is dug. Garbage gets tossed from cars, and dropped as people are walking along. It's a real problem but there is no solution yet.

Arusha does have a garbage collection system and places to dispose of your waste.

The garbage mostly contains plastic water bottles, plastic packages (jam, etc.) tissues, paper (school stuff) candy wrappers, not many canned items, it’s a lot of plastic and some jars. A large bucket or pail (ie:detergent bottle) will be reused for a water carrier or container.

People do recognize that garbage is a problem but there is NO alternative so they don’t have a choice to do something else. The schools are working hard to plant flowers and things to keep the school compound clean but in the broader community it’s a free for all. They do have a sense of keeping MY space clean, but no sense of responsibility for the public areas. The front porch will be swept and kept clean of garbage but just beyond that it is public land and no one feels responsibility for it.

Electricity

Electricity is used for television, radio, occasional computer, charging solar lanterns (if it’s lost its power) and the occasional fridge. Though more fridges are being seen in Longido now.

Some guest houses do have a hot water pump that requires a constant electricity flow for a guest room.

There is no use of electricity for heat (propane is used for heat) or fans because it is too unreliable and too expensive. They turn the electricity off at the wall as soon as the phone is charged.

Monetary Systems

They currently have MPesa in use in Longido (MPesa is a mobile banking system) With a store as small as. 2’ x 2’ they can afford to use MPesa to do their transactions with.

Micro-enterprise

The  Maasai women are limited in a business sense. They rely on bead making, and heavily on the tourism industry which is very low in Longido and somewhat seasonal.

Quite a few projects have worked with the women as a collective and improved the quality of their bead making. One woman can take the beads into Arusha and sell them there and that is successful, but one woman working on her own in Longido will not be successful because there is no market.

Some other businesses the women have are: selling chickens, selling milk, selling fabrics door to door, or roasting corn and selling it a a roadside cart. Some successful small restaurants/stands have a steady income. Slightly larger stores or vegetable stands run throughout the year are quite successful too. There is also a cell phone store in Longido.

Currently 130 women involved in micro-business at TEMBO.

If a woman is given a goat it becomes part of the man’s livestock. Some women do take the money and spend it how they see fit rather than the man of the household, but it varies a lot depending on the family.

Play

Yes! They were hoping there would be some play spaces. It would be really nice to have a place they could come and go, and a community space to gather and talk to other people. TEMBO is currently looking at building a learning center and possibly a play space.

Children currently play anywhere and everywhere – play with anything they find (sticks, lids of buckets, tires, tiny bits of plastic, glass, broken stuff) play hop-scotch, singing, pebble game (traditional), love a deck of cards, skipping rope, soccer ball made of found stuff (size of tennis ball or something).

Regular soccer balls get punctured by thorns in about half an hour! The ones the children make last a lot longer because they cannot be punctured.

There wasn't anything Virginia could think of that would stop the children from playing.


The adults relax by socializing at each others houses, telling stories, listening to music, going to restaurant and having a beer, singing in the choir in the church, or playing cards if they can get a deck of cards.

Cultural Barriers

Looks like through all our calls all the cultural barriers Virginia can think of have been covered except possibly healthcare. She will look into that further and talk to the doctor.

Bricks

Bricks are made by hand which is very labor intensive – made of mud and water. They slap the mud into a tool and make two bricks at a time, then carry the mold twenty feet to dry the bricks in the sun and dump it and then repeat. They do this for hours on end in bare feet bent over the bricks. Many bricks crumble when they are dried or some just aren’t dry. So it's not a very efficient process.

Meeting with Water Engineer

He was very interested in the efficiency of the solar cleaner system, fog nets, tarp add-on to house, and community space water gathering, He was looking at ways in which the project could be integrated into public spaces – they would serve as a demonstration project and also get water for the community on a larger scale.

There a three specific areas they are interested in – Longido Chair person, Kimokouwa chair person, and Indocaraute (spelling?) village. The respective chair persons are all very interested in the water project. Sources of water are different in all three but the overriding issue is the quantity of water available to the people.

Internet 

An iPad picks up internet quite well but the rocket sticks are slow on the 3G. 1 month of internet is 35,000 Tshillings for 3G service.

Postal Service

There is a little post office with about 100 mail boxes ( you can rent one) which is used if you have a business, but most mail is delivered by hand to people and not by the post box.  A lot of letters are written and used as a way of introducing a project or person.

Electricity

Power lines were installed in 2010. The power comes from Temesco, who is now continuing main line to the far side of Longido. It currently stops at the main line of the village. It’s getting more affordable (schools now have it) though it is still quite expensive.

Reservoir

There's a couple of them in Longido. There is the main reservoir, the bore hole, and a new reservoir near the TEMBO guesthouse. They are about ½ km up the mountain.

The bore hole is no longer used because the pump was too small and they are currently trying to find a way to replace the pump.  As a result all the distribution lines connected to that bore hole are shut down and not working.

The bore holes are not up in the densely vegetated part of Mount Longido. There are trees on the flat part of Longido (Acacia’s) about 8-12 feet tall. Where the mountain starts to go up it gets rocky and the reservoirs are located below where you get into the thicker forest.

The bore hole that’s being used is fed by streams coming down the mountain (both reservoirs are same height up the mountain). They are about 6-7 feet above ground.  Mt. Miru supplies water for Ingacarete (pop. of 2000 people) but they have water quality issues.

Some maasai have built small damns to reservoir water on their property.

Kimoukowa gets their water from a stream on the back side of Longido and rely on three damns to direct the flow.

All of the topics we have been researching over the last month and a half fit together in a whole system. We've found that each part compliments another, and that most topics support another in some shape or form. We've also found that there are aspects of each topic that can be approached from a design, business or engineering perspective. When we take all of these factors into consideration we gain a better understanding of the system at play in Longido.

The project itself is rooted in water collection. We've used this as a starting point.

Water heavily influences health and agriculture, which tie back together in nutrition and food. Health can branch off into sanitation which ties back into water by means of toilets, wash stations and water sanitation. Health also includes waste and garbage management.

Waste and Garbage present opportunities for design and business projects. On a micro enterprising level , people can create jobs through collecting, sorting or re-purposing garbage andrecycleables. From a design perspective, we can consider how garbage may be repurposed as building materials in our own prjects, or how our projects may create waste or contribute to the waste issue (in either a negative or positive manner). We must keep environmental sustainability in mind during every step of our project.

Both health and Agriculture lead us to questions about education. Education about proper sanitation and nutrition needs is key for the project to be successful. We must understand their own understanding of these topics. Furthermore, we should know about the education standards of children on these topics. In relation to education and children, arises the topic of play spaces and playful learning.

Play spaces and community spaces are related to each other. Community spaces tie back into agriculture through community gardens and community market places to sell excess produce and food. Excess food production through efficient agriculture ties into business and micro enterprising.

Overall, we must understand Energy. Where does the energy they have access come from and how will our projects be powered? Will they use energy? will they create energy, and how will this energy be fed back into the system? From questions on energy, we have projects around lighting. Lighting indoors and in community spaces is very important. Lighting costs from kerosene are high. Lighting is important for studying, which ties back to a child's education.

1. Agriculture is a key source of income for many people throughout Tanzania. However, in Longido, due to dry climate much of their food is brought in from other areas, and food growth is limited. Some places have used Hafirs on a small scale to provide water collection during the rainy season to water plants during the dry season. There exists an opportunity to harvest water on a small scale to water gardens a give people a sustainable way to grow their own food and sell it.
    
2. In Longido and across Africa food insecurity is a major issue. It is often correlated with a lack of farming tools (low mechanization); insufficient fertilizer; low diversity of seeds/plant types; poor irrigation due to lack of access to water / high costs of irrigation; poor formal education of farmers;  loss of crops due to weather, pests, theft, and wildlife; and lack of loans and financial systems. Poor nutrition has negative effects on communities, children's development and more. There exists a need for improved food security through better agriculture.
3. Permaculture is being implemented as a system of sustainable cultivation in areas across Africa. It's been very successful and accepted with enthusiasm by users. Among other things, it has increased household income, allowed women to become entrepreneurs and empowered people without formal education. As designers, we can use the principles of permaculture to ensure we create a system that is cost effective, yields high output and  exists in harmony with the local environment. 
4. Water collection takes up a large portion of many people's day, especially women and children. In Kitala, Tanzania for example, the students often had to miss up to two periods of class a day to collect water, due to lack of water access at the school. In order to help children stay in school, and allow people to spend fewer hours of their days collecting water, there exists a need to provide an accessible and sustainable water collection method.
   
   
5. Women and girls in Tanzania miss a lot of opportunities due to responsibilities to family and tradition. Recent changes within the communities, driven by both the women themselves and NGO's such as Project Tembo, are empowering women through loans, education and micro-businesses to help them access more independence and opportunities. These projects have been relatively successful and are being accepted by communities. If we integrate our project into what Tembo is already doing, we may have a higher success rate.
    
6. Play in childhood is a key to a child's development and growth in all areas of the world. Playful Learning and Guided Play are techniques that help children learn valuable life lessons through play which is grounded in reality. These techniques are being employed in Tanzania by people such as Sarah Ilmollelian with her Montessori Schools, and NGOs such as Right to Play with play spaces and community building projects. There exists a need in Longido for a safe space for children to learn and play.
7. The people of Longido have adopted many forms of modern technology, such as cell phones. It is predicted that by 2015, 75% of people in Tanzania will have access to a phone.With higher access to technology and internet there is a greater access to information and flow of knowledge. This has positive implications that they are accepting of new technology and adapting it to their way of life.
8. Energy in Longido comes mainly from Solar, Diesel and Kerosene. Kerosene and Diesel are expensive, as are solar panels. Solar panels are also fragile. MPower is one of the organizations behind the solar power in Tanzania. Biogas has also recently began becoming more common. Biogas is difficult to store and distribute. It is important for us to be aware of the kind of energy that will be available for powering any projects or technology we plan to implement. 
9. Kerosene is a common source of indoor lighting in Longido, and similar rural areas in Tanzania; it is both expensive and unsafe. People spend close to 25% of their yearly budget on lighting there home on 2 hours a night. This has led us to believe the is an opportunity to create a more cost effective and sustainable lighting method for families.
10. Garbage is a huge issue, and littering has become very common as there is no easy place to dispose of garbage; some people burn the garbage in open fire pits or collect garbage to sell to organizations as reusable material. Garbage such as water bottles can be given a second life as new products, or used as building blocks for homes. We believe there is an opportunity for finding new methods of waste disposal or re-purposing this waste as building materials in other projects.
11. Projects should be done in an innovative way such that it is affordable to the people it is created for. If people can afford to buy it and maintain it themselves, the project is far more likely to be successful than "free aid." Income for people in Longido and similar rural areas is very low, but they do have money and should be able to support themselves on what they have. Therefore, products produced for this area must offer high value and quality at a low price point; it should also make use of modularity and single servings to help reduce costs.
12. Projects from NGO's are not always successful. For example, an American NGO built a water harvesting system in Malawi. It broke down. Several years later, Engineers Without Borders built a nearly identical system. Again, it broke down. It is incredibly important that we learn from past mistakes and are aware of the history of projects in the area. Furthermore, it is important that anything we build is understood by and can be maintained by people in Longido.

Design seems to center more as design FOR developing countries, instead of design IN developing countries. The design process is short and depends on the free time of the designer as the goal of the whole project is to merely develop a product, whether good or bad. Also, generally these projects by foreigners lean on the high-tech side rather than user-centric design. If it was a longer term project, it would have to involve local capacity, skills, knowledge and expertise that enables the society to meet their own needs. However generally, locals do not have the skills or experience to support these projects (Kass, 2013).

Bill Gates’ charity foundation was able to successfully promote awareness of poor sanitation conditions in third world countries, and in order to help solve the issue he hosted a competition for a Toilet design that could be implemented in Third World countries. However, the winning project was far too costly and overly technical to be feasable (Donaldson, 2008).

It is clear that the design had little understanding of the real needs of and did not design with environment (materials and user knowledge) in mind. The winning design of the competition consisted of a toilet designed by CalTech that wouldn’t be economically feasible. Most toilet entries had additional high tech “cool” factor items which would be extremely impractical in the environments in which they were supposed to be implemented. Their approach focused on a similar problem faced by North Americans- lack of access to established septic systems- but ignored dissimilar problems faced by third-world users such as poverty (Donaldson, 2008).

While design projects like this are often well intentioned, they can be very impractical in the long-run. Rather than attempt to design a "cool" product with high-tech "innovative" solutions, the projects should focus on being low cost, low maintenance and practical material use.

Why This is Important:

Projects from NGO's are not always successful. For example, an American NGO built a water harvesting system in Malawi. It broke down. Several years later, Engineers Without Borders built a nearly identical system. Again, it broke down. It is incredibly important that we learn from past mistakes and are aware of the history of projects in the area. Furthermore, it is important that anything we build is understood by and can be maintained by people in Longido.

Resources:

Kass, J. (2013, November 18). Bill Gates Can’t Build a Toilet. Retrieved September 15, 2014.

Donaldson, K. (2008, January 1). Why to be Wary of “Design for Developing Countries”. Thinking, 35-37.

A woman using the Hippo Roller in transporting water

The Hippo Roller aims in reducing the amount of time and physical strain of transporting water from a source to the home. Many women and children spend a lot of labouring hours to transport large amount of water over vast distances; the Hippo Roller allows them to roll their water instead of carrying it on their back and heads. Many people in the developing areas have no access to clean water and have to travel very far to get access to clean water. Many hours are wasted transporting water, with the Hippo Roller, the task can be sped up and the leftover time can be reallocated for another activity like education. The Hippo Roller can last many years, anywhere from 5-7 years, and has a design that requires little to no maintenance. It has won multiple awards and continues to be produced and distributed in Africa.

Virginia Taylor, our current liaison in Longido, Tanzania was able to provide us with some quantitative data on the consumption of water in the village. The following are taken from the email provided by her.

• Domestic Water Demand:
• per capita: 25 L
• per livestock unit: 25 L (1 livestock unit is equivalent to 1 cattle, 2 donkeys, 5 goats/sheep and 30 poultry) 
• Commercial Water Demand:
• Hotel: 70 L/ bed per day
• Bars: 70 L/ per day
• Shops: 25 L/ per day
• Institutional Water Demand:
• Day Schools: 10 L/student
• Boarding Schools: 70 L/student
• Health Care Dispensary: 10 L/visitor per day
• Non Modern Health Care Centre: 50 L/bed per day
• Modern Health Care Centre: 100 L/ bed per day
• Administration Offices - pit latrine: 10 L/ worker per day
• Administration Offices - urban area: 70 L/worker per day

Image from here of MPower and Off the Grid Electric in Arusha, Tanzania

Currently in Longido, Tanzania there is a group from MPower working with solar panels to provide energy to the residents of the village. MPower is an Arusha based company that has helped residents of Tanzania gain access to electiricty through their mobile based daily service of solar energy. MPower is a company under Off Grid Electric which is part of a larger company, Ashden Solutions; who look in providing alternative energy to all. MPower happens to be the name of the program in place in Tanzania where users can use a pay-as-you go type of service to have electricity. A lot of residents in rural areas are not connected to the electric grid system and because MPower allows for a mobile solar alternative, people are able to have access to electricity from the installation of solar units from MPower.

The workers of MPower and the business itself relies heavily on the use of mobile phones. They pay with their phones, attend to customer service, book keeping... Their business model runs off of a "cloud"and makes use of technology to run smoothly. Below is a short video explaining more in depth their business model.

Access to clean water for drinking, water for cleaning, sanitary living and working conditions and sanitary latrines play a large role in the success of education (Buzarwa, 2012). Both teachers and children benefit when clean water is accessible. When teacher's do not have good living and working conditions they may become ill and will be more likely to be absent from work (Tao, 2013).

To have clean water is important so that you don’t get diseases. For example, I got typhoid two weeks ago. I am lucky that I went to see the doctor early. So you can see, this water that we are drinking is not safe. We just take it from the tank and drink it. And to have a good toilet is important too. If not, you will get diseases like cholera or worms.  - A Teacher in Tanzania commenting on the issues of clean water in Tanzania (Tao, 2013)

WASH Mapping (Buzara, 2012), and Water Point Mapping (WPM) (Lemoyan, 2008) are techniques for monitoring the distribution of water supplies. By locating water sources, project planning and urban (community) planning can be done in a more effective way to ensure people within communities are able to access water. According to UNICEF, a school has adequate sanitation and water facilities when it has hardware & software that supports a healthy environment and good hygiene behaviors; including but not limited to: clean drinking water, hand washing stations and safe toilets. Close to 90% of schools in the Longido District do not meet these requirements, having an "open defecation" system in place instead (Lemoyan, 2008).

Finding good place for sanitation stations (toilets and hand washing stations) includes taking "location, sitting, distance from the targeted audience and functionality status" into consideration. WASH mapping showed that facilities are better within and near townships/more urban areas and are generally poorer in more rural areas (Buzarwa, 2012).

 According to Water Aid there are several key factors that are missing from the situation that have led to the poor water and sanitation situation:

• In order to find an appropriate entry point for the project there must be understanding of the dynamics of pastoralist systems and how that influences sanitation and hygiene practices.
• Awareness must be raised about the importance of adopting good practices
• Access to water should be emphasized as a prerequisite for adopting certain hygiene and sanitation practices
• There must be an understanding of the engineering challenges during construction AND the management of waste (Lemoyan, 2008).

There are some solutions for water sanitation in existence.  One novel technique called Biosanitizer, attempts to convert polluted water to clean water + useable organic materials through natural denitrification process. It is typically more effective and environmentally friendly than typical chemical sanitation processes. The biosanitizer agent combines nitrates with CO2 and waste heat to produce organics and oxygen. This method has been applied in sewage treatment at the Taj Hotel in Madurai, India, and in many other areas and situations around the world (Bhawalkar, n.d.).

Why This is Important:

When considering how to design water collection systems, it is also important for us to consider how sanitation comes into play.


 

Resources:

Lemoyan, J.S. (2008)Demystifying Sanitation – Challenges and Prospects of Sanitation Service Delivery among the Pastoralist Communities in Longido District. Portfolio Team North. Retrieved on October 1, 2014 from: http://emjee.biz/resources/DemystifyingSanitation.pdf

Bhawalkar, U.S. (n.d.) Biosanitizer: A resource for Ecosanitation. Waste to Health. Retrieved on October 1, 2014 from: http://www.wastetohealth.com/biosanitizer_ecosanitation_resource.html

In his TED talk, 'When an NGO Failure Leads to Success' David Damberger of Engineers Without Borders discusses the lack of published failures for organizations to learn from.

On his first project David went into an area of Malawi and drilled a well and installed a water system for the people. Everyone was happy that there was clean water flowing and then he flew back home.

One year later he went back to check on his water system and found it was broken. When he started digging into it he found that over 80% of the systems were broken and the American government had actually installed a similar system with the exact same technology a decade before and that had broken.

Why This is Important

Seeing what has been done and the reasons it has failed is important to delivering a successful and sustainable end product or solution. In this case the water systems failed due to 'software' solutions instead of the hardware. The people were not involved in the creation of the water system of educated on how to maintain the system. The other factor is people weren't given a reason to care about maintaining the system because there was no personal involvement or ownership.

Source:

I started reading a report on food insecurity in Tanzania called: Tanzania - Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis 2012. Findings were based on data generated from the 2008-2009 and 2010-2011 Tanzania National Panel Surveys (NPS). The purpose of the study was to track households' food security over the two-year period to obtain baseline information about food insecurity in Tanzania.

“Food security defines a situation in which all people at all times have physical 
and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their 
dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO, 1996)."





The NPS interviewed 3,265 households in phase 1 and 3,846 households in phase 2. The information gathered consisted of their expenditures, food security, assets, livelihoods, nutrition, farming practices, and impact of recent economic and other shocks.

Their findings showed 730,000 households were food insecure or vulnerable to food insecurity. Of these, approximately 150,000 households were considered "chronically food insecure" (food insecure for phase 1 as well as phase 2 of the study).

The report concluded that food insecurity was improving, but not fast enough to match Tanzania's economic gains. Food insecurity was correlated with a lack of farming tools (low mechanization); insufficient fertilizer; low diversity of seeds/plant types; poor irrigation due to lack of access to water / high costs of irrigation; poor formal education of farmers;  loss of crops due to weather, pests, theft, and wildlife; and lack of loans and financial systems that would allow farmers to obtain sufficient tools.






























Why this is important:

I found this to be a thorough, explanatory report filled with relevant data and statistics. It first outlined the demography, economic growth, and general health status of Tanzanians before delving into the different causes and correlations of food insecurity.


Kisanga, J., Miller, D., & Wadhwa, A. Tanzania - Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis 2012. (2013, September). Retrieved from http://www.wfp.org/content/tanzania-comprehensive-food-security-vulnerability-analysis-2012-august-2013

 

 Introduction

• Have to look at design for the BOP as a design challenge and NOT a charity case
• BOP defined as people living on less than $2/day and number about 2 billion
• We can’t assume we know what the poor want, only they know their needs
• BOP customers get products and services at an affordable price, but most importantly they get recognition, respect, and fair treatment
• Decision makers do not often hear the voice of the poor

3 keys to creating capacity to consume
o   Affordability
o   Access
o   Availability

Chapter 1: The Market at the Bottom of the Pyramid

• Stop thinking about poor as victims or a burden, and recognize them as creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers
• Need a win-win where companies profit and poor can afford goods + services
• The poor actually pay a ‘poverty penalty’ of between 5-25 times the price that the rich pay for the same services
• The poor have unpredictable income and make purchases only when they have cash and buy only what they need for that day and solutions need to take that into account
•  

Chapter 2: Products and Services for the BOP

Chapter 3: BOP A Global Opportunity

• There are four distinct sources of opportunity for a firm that invests into the BOP:
• Some BOP markets are large and attractive on their own
• Local innovations can be applied to other BOP markets
• Some innovations can be applied to the developed world
• Lessons from BOP markets can influence practices of global firms

 

Chapter 4: The Ecosystem for Wealth Creation

•  There should be a greater interdependence between the public and the private sectors in order to promote growth in the BOP

 

Chapter 5: Reducing Corruption

• Make the process as transparent as possible in order to realize the real costs of corruption

 

Chapter 6: Development as Social Transformation

• When the poor are treated as customers they can reap the benefits of choice, respect, and self-esteem and have an opportunity to climb out of poverty

• Transforming the BOP into a market will require innovation
•   When a new ‘low-end’ product comes into a market it could be a step up from what people are currently using

 

Case Studies of Successes

•  Casas Bahia is a major electronics retailer in Brazil and has a market worth $1.2 billion (US) per year
•   Sears and Wal-Mart have both failed in this Brazilian market because they did not understand the needs of their customers
• Their business model revolves around financing – between 1 and 15 month periods
• 90% of their sales are financed

 

Why This is Important

There have been successes with products and strategies targeted towards the people living on very little per day. It's a good reminder that any project has to be self-sustainable and not subsidized. A successful product that is affordable could improve lives for the better but the solution will require a new way of thinking and innovation; in one or many areas which is the challenge. 

Source:
Prahalad, C. K.. The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Pub., 2005. Print.