Manual W4L – safe water & business development

Introduction

Who we are
W4L is an independent foundation with two main goals:
1. Business development: Exploring viable business models to fight poverty
2. Product development: Develop a safe water product with the potential to save
children, elderly and people with impaired immunity system from dying, and
reduce suffering and medical expenses for all others who drink unsafe water.

Team-effort/structure
We form a team with Oxfam-Novib and different partners from the South. This manual is
based on our experiences of working with the Dhan Foundation in South India.

For whom is this manual written

This manual is made to guide our future partner NGOs in starting up a project with us.

Business development
We explore the viability of different options for providing safe water products to the
poor. One, we develop a product in the West, sell large numbers with small margins,
targeting the bottom of the pyramid. Second, we support the emerging markets in
producing our innovation and sell it to the poor. Third, we train the poor to develop their
own product, and sell it to their peers. Fourth and fifth, we support the poor in producing
products for the emerging markets and the west.

target
consumer base

emerging local
west
markets markets

west 1

R&D emerging
2
location markets

local
5 4 3
markets

(based on a model of Prashant Sarin.)

Product

1
 1. Filter candle
2. Raw water chamber
3. Storage chamber/ Receptacle
4. Hand-pump
5. Cap
6. Pressure release

We combine ancient knowledge with innovation

We offer two models to purify water: A gravity and a pressure model. The gravity model
is a proven technology, reproduced at a fraction of the cost-price, without losing quality.
It is made up of filter candles positioned in a two bucket structure. We screened the
global market for the right candle, and decided to import one from Brasil. The body can
be produced with locally available materials.
The pressure model is a little more sophisticated. It increases the flow rate from drip
speed to the speed of a tap connected to piped supply. There is no longer a need for a
receptacle, which removes the chance of re-growth of bacteria during storage.

How to operate these products?

Gravity model: Remove the lid, pour the water, close the lid, wait for a few hours for the
water to trickle through the filter candle into the receptacle. Then open the tap and collect
the water. The filter receptacle should be kept clean and hygienic by washing it ones a
week.
Pressure model: open the valve, remove the lid, pour the water, close the lid, close the
valve, close the tap, pump, open the tap, collect the water.

When the flow rate drops, clean the filter candles: Remove the candle from the filter. Use
some water and a piece of cloth. Wash the candles briefly until the visible dirt is
removed.

2
How do they remove/deactivate pathogens?
The filter candle is made from clay, which is fired to attain a fine pore structure. The pore
size is small enough to retain bacteria, and let through the water at a reasonable speed.
The candle is impregnated with colloidal silver on the inside and outside which
deactivates the bacteria. This combination of ceramics and colloidal silver has proven to
be a winner, with very high removal efficiency. (99,9%-99,99%)

The ceramic lifetime ends when the surface becomes uneven and difficult to clean.

How does it remove iron, chlorine, odour and colour?

The filter candle is filled up with active carbon. This is a material that has a huge
potential to adsorb. Contaminants slide into the holes of this honeycomb and hold fast.

The lifetime of the carbon ends when it is fully saturated.

Production [manufacturing]
W4L and DHAN train entrepreneurs in production. The entrepreneurs gather all
necessary materials from a local market, construct the filters at their factories/workshops,
and sell the filters at cost plus 10% profit. Your NGO can buy them or if you’re interested
we can discuss the option of starting up your own production.

Product service
Customers receive training in operation and maintenance, and a guarantee period for
repair or return. Dhan foundation has installed a service centre in our pilot villages, which
is run by local people trained as ‘educators’ and ‘mechanics’. The service centre receives
enough spare parts from the Dhan. In this way, the community is able to help themselves.

Place
Two main considerations have to be taken in mind in order to find the right place for a
filter project:
1. [demand] Is there a felt need for water quality improvement amongst the target group?
2. [supply] What is the turbidity of the different water sources people use and how well
does the filter work with these sources?

3
Demand
‘A felt need for water quality improvement’ depends on the quality of the water, peoples’
health and their ability to link the two. All three can be investigated. Water quality can be
determined by water quality tests. Several samples are taken from peoples homes, and
brought to a nearby microbiological lab, or analyzed using a portable water test kit. The
incidence of the indicator bacteria E. Coli represents the quality of the water. One test
(including several samples) is not enough though, because levels of contamination vary
over time. A more accurate picture is obtained when water quality tests are repeated at
certain time interval. (e.g. every month)

Second, one can determine the effect of waterborne diseases on people’s health in the
project area. Symptoms of waterborne diseases can be a first indicator. Ask around and
find out. Waterborne diseases are cholera, typhoid, dysentery, diarrhea and hepatitis A.
All diseases occur within your intestines. Symptoms vary per disease, but to give an
indication: a loose, watery stool, sometimes slimy/bloody, vomiting, with/without a
fever. A loose stool results in a loss of body fluids, called dehydration, which weakens
the body and may end in death. A visit to a nearby health centre may be helpful to collect
data on the number of patients diagnosed with waterborne disease. A third indicator may
come from other active NGOs in the area, who have conducted similar research.
now that you have formed an idea of the quality of the water and peoples health, you can
discuss your findings with the people and leave it up to them to decide for or against a
filter project.

Supply
Ceramic filtration is mainly limited by the turbidity (dirtiness) of the water. Suspended
solids in the water are caught on the candle surface, form an impermeable layer that
blocks the water flow. This film can easily be removed and cleaning is part of the
technology, but not practical when it needs to be done too often.

In South India our partner Dhan foundation stratified the drinking water supply into 4
sources: Ooranis (surface water ponds), Open Wells (open system for shallow
groundwater), Hand-Pumps (closed system for shallow groundwater) and Community
Supply (a system of bore wells, overhead tanks and pipeline for deep groundwater). W4L
added the option of Rainwater Harvesting. Field tests were done and showed that
technology worked well with the input water of the last three sources.
This example shows how to select the right place for starting up a filter project.

Our conclusion: Only clear water can be used for the W4L purifier.

Promotion [sales]
Content
The content is about what you want to say. We divide messages used for promotion into
health related and product related messages.
quality of drinking water and peoples health. Health promotion explains the transmission
routes from Faeces via Fingers, Flies, Fields and Fluids to the drinking water that is

4
consumed by the children with limited resistance and water quality improvement,
sanitation, hygiene and water quantity improvement being equally important
interventions in reducing suffering from waterborne diseases. Product promotion is
focused on water quality improvement through the use of ceramic filtration. The
messages explain for instance what is offered, how it works, the costs and the benefits.

Form
The form is about how you get the message across. How do you divide and address your
target group? Children who are open to change, women who may be in charge of the
wellbeing of the family, men who may control the budgets, opinion leaders who
influence the masses? What kind of setting do you choose for distributing your message?
(Schools, homes, small group meetings, larger community meeting…) What kind of
medium? (Movies, theater, education, speech, billboard, small group discussion…)

Price [Cost Recovery]

No-, Partial-, or Full- Cost Recovery.
We think it is unwise to distribute the product for free, because we want to stimulate our
customers to make a rational decision based on felt need, instead of e.g. an act of
politeness. Full cost recovery will make the project sustainable, but will also drive up the
purchase price of the product, that may become too expensive for the target group. At the
moment we work with partial cost recovery, asking a limited contribution from the
people. At the same time we look into cost-reducing measures, like making use of local
price levels (local production) or increasing the scale of production (centralized
production), which will make it easier to recover a larger part of the costs.

Purchasing price and recurring costs

At this moment the price of manufacturing the filter, including profit, for the gravity
model is 10 euro and for the pressure model is 20 euro.
The candles have a lifetime of at least 6 months of intensive use. They need to be
replaced when the flow rate can no longer be restored. Recurring costs for buying filter
candles are 1 per piece.

Ready cash or monthly installments

Ready cash is less time consuming, but our experience is that people prefer monthly
installments of a small amount of money. Especially the poor may not have the full
purchasing price available as ‘ready cash’.

Personnel
Who does what?
In the short run we would like you to start up a water project making use of our product,
and we together we will bring clean water to the people.
In the long run we need your help to make the project more sustainable. Under Price we
already mentioned some cost-reducing measures. Another advantage of local production

5
over centralized production is that we can try to create jobs for the poor, besides
delivering clean water.

W4L personnel
W4L consists of staff with knowledge and experience in engineering, development
cooperation and sales.

NGO personnel
Within your organization people need to be available to organize the water project
activities, like promotion, cost recovery, community participation.

Community management
Above we briefly described the involvement of the people in ‘Product service’. They may
be interested to work for the water project, as ‘educators’, explaining the operation and
maintenance, or as ‘mechanics’, taking care of repair.

Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation are management tools to keep track of progress. The act of
monitoring is done during the implementation of the project. Evaluation is planned
before and after the project.

Monitoring
Our monitoring activity is measuring progress in terms of quantity, e.g. the number of
units distributed, but more importantly in terms of quality, e.g. whether or not the
consumers are using the product. A survey will cater for consumer feedback. The main
question is: “Are you using the device?” With the sub questions we will find out why
they do (which highlight activities that have been carried out well) or why they don’t
(which gives us a clue which aspects need extra attention).
W4L and Dhan Foundation are currently monitoring 3 pilot projects every 3 months. One
of our conclusions so far is that customers did not fully understand the operation of the
pressure model. Our team is working on a simplified closing mechanism and has
organized door-to-door training in operating the device.

Evaluation
Two activities can be mentioned: ‘water quality test’ and ‘health impact study’. As
described under ‘Place’, we test the water quality of the sources and study the health of
the people before starting the project. After the implementation the same activities are
repeated. Comparing ‘before and after’ will show if water quality of peoples’ water and
their health [measured for instance in terms of diarrhea incidence] is significantly
improved.

References