Question from a reader: Fixing water filtration in India

A simple sand and activated charcoal filter ($10-15) can filter hundreds of gallons of water simply and cheaply. But will this solve India's (bottled) water issues?? Read on... (photosource: bethechangeinc)


I got the following question in my inbox recently. Its becoming a question of increasing frequency, and I want to address it properly. Here's the "question" the reader wrote:

Last year, after a research expedition [on the effect of plastics on the environment]...we were giving talks and meeting with legislators along the way [in North America].

At one of our talks, a woman who had just returned from a long trip in India approached me, and said, "this is all great what you guys are doing to educate people, BUT there are much larger problems with plastic bottles and waste overseas". She told me that due to poor sanitation, in some areas she'd been in, people had no choice but to drink out of plastic bottles, and lacked the infrastructure to deal with them.

Which made me wonder if bringing water filtration systems to India might make a difference, albeit small.... for peanuts here ($500-$1000), an entire school can have clean water.

I've never been to India, but would be interested to hear your thoughts. Perhaps we might try to raise money for a few filters, to start with...

Here was my response:

I agree with the bottled water issue. As much as I detest bottled water, I find that when I'm in the developing world for very short bursts (where I don't have the time to purge my system and adapt) and need reliable, safe water quickly, I rely on bottled water (note: I try to drink tea, boiled water, other boiled beverages or soups for the most part, and only eat fresh, cooked food. Bottled water is a substitute when I can't find these or its simply too hot!). Amongst poor communities, plastic bottles are a huge commodity. Recycling goes on in full, plus the thicker, better bottles are used as water bottles or to store other liquids. They use these for several reasons -- convenience, cost (free to find, recyclable when they are done, easy to replace), how light it is, how sturdy it is, its lack of brittleness, etc. And yes...often they have no other choice.

Water filters are available in abundance in most of the developing world, particularly in non-disaster zones. India has a lot of indigenous water filters that do a very good job...most selling for around $50-$100. Most middle, upper, even poorer class Indians have them installed in their houses, though the best and most effective need access to electricity (they are RO systems). If you really want, you can build one using sand and a large bucket (or see diagram above). This is how most wastewater is treated in the US, though on a much larger scale. Clear water combined with some bleach dosing (aka chlorine disinfection), should render perfectly safe and drinkable water, and all for less than $10.

Probably best of all, there is always the option of boiling...the problem with this is that its very energy intensive and if you use wood/charcoal/kerosene, its simply too expensive. (I tend to boil my water usually in the developing world, except when i've run out of my supply and then use the water i find either at a tea shop or i buy bottled water).

Sometimes its not the filtration that's the problem....its the sourcing of clean water, the collection, the transportation, and the storage of water that are the biggest issues. Outside of the sourcing issues, plastic generally fills these voids.

Of course, for problems like arsenic, fluoride, salinity, etc, where you need more advanced cleaning, or where the water is extremely turbid (cloudy or visibly dirty), it becomes a different issue. These are very regional issues, and generally you can figure out what the biggest water problems in that area are by visiting the NGOs, doctors or govt public health agencies in that area. If its pathogen-related (which is the majority of water quality issues), then generally some proper boiling or filtration/disinfection will quell the problem. But other issues need more specialized solutions.

Finally, I'm not a huge fan of transplanted filters or other mechanisms. Filters from here are not made to withstand water or field conditions there. Expensive systems have a short shelflife, then like every other good transplant, they wither and die. This is partially because there is no one to do regular operation and maintenance, or who has been trained properly to fix even the smallest problems. A COMMON problem is letting untrained hands take over the operation of a technology. Their curiosity gets the better of them, and the technology is quickly rendered useless. Replacement parts are hard to find and buy, and the issue of untrained hands repeats itself. Always look for indigenous units, you are much more likely to have success in terms of adoption, operation/maintenance, and replacement if necessary.

These are my immediate thoughts on the subject. I'm always happy to discuss this further with you...

Thoughts anyone??

Pixar: Interview with Jobs and Lasseter

Rounding out my past two Pixar-centric posts, I wanted to end the week with this video interview, that Charlie Rose did with Pixar creative director, John Lasseter, and Pixar owner and CEO, Steve Jobs.

Jobs, as you may already know, is notoriously hard to get on film. He hasn't done an interview in years! Also, this interview was done before Toy Story became the pioneering success that it is still perceived to be today. The interview is consequently fresh, fascinating, and enlightening. Here, Pixar is trying to make a case for the audience to believe and buy into their product (a very different place from today). Much to learn here about how the company's innovative atmosphere and focus was developed.

Bottomline: Focus on the story...

World's largest entrepreneurial competition

China is leading the way. India already has something similar but it has yet to mobilize the same number of people. Imagine if there was a Pan Asia competition. That would include over a third of the world's population. From PSFK:

Broadcast on China’s CCTV national television, “Win in China” (赢在中国) is the world’s largest and most lucrative business plan competition. With over $5 million in prize money, the TV show pits 120,000 entrepreneurs competing to win $1.5 million dollars to invest in the winner’s business plan.

The documentary, produced by Robert Compton, follows the TV show of the same name and features entrepreneur celebrities such as Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group and Chairman of China Yahoo, who served as Head Judge and Liu Chuanzhi, founder of computer giant Lenovo.

CCTV host sums up the role played by entrepreneurs in China: “Today, entrepreneurs are the biggest heroes in our society.”

Links I liked

1. Anita and the secret lives of her bees

2. A straw house passes major earthquake tests.

3. The future of water technology is in the nano!

4. The story of two innovative women and their way out of poverty.

5. B-school graduates are finally learning to do something with their degrees.

TED starts its search for TEDIndia Fellows

TED is searching for 100 innovative world-changing world citizens to be a part of its TEDIndia Conference. Read more about the Fellows program here.

You all know that I was a TED2009 Fellow in Long Beach and how wonderful the experience was. So I encourage everyone to apply. If you'd rather nominate someone, please email their name and email address to fellows AT ted DOT com.

The TEDIndia Fellows program is a part of the larger TED Fellows Program, a new international fellowship program designed to nurture great ideas and help them spread around the world. This year, organizers will select 100 promising individuals from around the world to attend the very first TEDIndia Conference. At the end of the year, organizers will select 20 individuals from a pool of the TED, TEDGlobal, and TEDIndia Fellows to participate in an extended three-year Senior Fellowship, bringing them to six consecutive conferences. The principal goal of the program is to empower the Fellows to effectively communicate their work to the world.

Benefits of the Fellowship include conference admission, round-trip transportation, housing and all meals. Fellows will also participate in a two-day pre-conference with the opportunity to present a short talk for consideration for TED.com, elite skills-building courses taught by world experts, social opportunities and surprise extras.

The TEDIndia Fellows program will have international representation with a distinctly South Asian majority, with approximately 75% of the Fellows representing the South Asian region, and 25% representing other regions of the world. South Asia is defined as including the countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. For the global pool, applications will also be sought from the other five target regions: Africa, Asia/Pacific, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, with consideration to the applicants from other countries.

The program seeks remarkable thinkers and doers who have shown unusual accomplishment, exceptional courage, moral imagination and the potential to increase positive change in their respective fields. The program focuses on innovators in technology, entertainment, design, science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and the NGO community, among other pursuits. Applicants are generally between 21-40 years of age, though anyone over 18 and over 40 may apply. They must also be fluent in English; though moderate fluency will be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

How to improvise...

I LOVED this picture...just SO sweet!

Innovating through negation

Part of good innovation is knowing when to say "no." That 's equally, if not more important than saying 'yes.' In a recent article, Google Senior VP Jeff Huber gave insight into their process for turning things down, and how they are still able to wow the world with their innovative products.

I suggest that you read the article, but here is my take on Google's process:

a. Diligent consumer testing: Know your audience and give them what they want. Any product that repeatedly fails consumer tests is immediately ditched.

b. Diligent listening: Google purposely puts out less than perfect products and then hones them around customer suggestions through their active product blogs.

b. Getting the fans and making the buck: If a new product won't generate ad revenue, the product is dropped. The bottom-line, particularly in this economy, is it should have a lot of fans. By Seth Godin's definition, a fan is someone (in this case a user) who will proselytize on your behalf. Getting more fans gets more ad revenue, which keeps the company growing.

Google's first-line of testing is their large and phenomenally brilliant employee base. If a product doesn't create a fan base among their employees, it probably won't make it in the "real world." Its what the googlers call "eating your own dog-food."

BoP Barriers to Innovation

Thanks to Africa Unchained, I came an article on the Barriers to Innovation focusing on biotech development in Africa. Fascinating read that's a working paper at the United Nations University. Here's the abstract:

Translating R&D and inventive efforts into a market product is characterized by significant financial skills, and the ability to overcome technical and institutional barriers. Research into and translation of new technologies such as biotechnology products to the market requires even greater resources. This paper aims to understand the key factors that foster or hinder the complex process of translating R&D efforts into innovative products. Different pathways exist in developed countries such as firm-level efforts, the use of IPs, the spin-off of new firms that develop new products, or a mixture of these. Developing countries differ substantially in the kinds of instruments they use because of their considerably weaker institutional environment and for this reason our framework takes a systemic and institutional perspective. The paper comtributes to this issue by examining systemic institutional barriers to commercializing biotechnology in a develping context within a systems of innovation framework. [get the rest here]

BoP consumer behavior

Do the BoP spend in the same way that upper and middle classes do?? (photo courtesy: matthew winterburn)

I recently read an excellent article on BoP entrepreneurialism by Niti Bhan and Dave Tait talks about "Design for the Next Billion Customers." It highlights consumer patterns of the BoP in Sub Saharan Africa. I've been following Niti's excellent blog for sometime now, where she talks about research of the BoP with regard to the wireless market. She has extensive insight into the consumer patterns of the BoP.

A couple of years back, I did an extensive case-study analysis of two entrepreneurs in India working in the lighting sector (not published). The entrepreneurs who did well in BoP areas (regardless of whether they were BoP themselves or not) understood their customer consumption behavior well. What few people understand is that the BoP is almost exactly like the middle or upper classes in their desires, but because they have limited capital, they spend differently. Understanding their consumer behavior is key to success in the field. What I found interesting (yet probably not so surprising) is that African BoP consumers are similar to Indian BoP consumers, which means that there is greater uniformity than I had previously thought. It also means that simply by studying their behavior, they can reach and tap into larger markets easier...allowing them to be better innovators and entrepreneurs.

More Contests Spurring Tech Innovation

Following up on my last post about the X-Prize, I wanted to point out three more contests that are improving technology (this is in the same vein as the WB Development Marketplace, and others like it).

1. Keen Footwear's Stand Up Out For contest:


Keen's Stand For winner, Brian Bell, plans to melt Haiti's ubiquitous plastic trash and transform it into footwear for kids (source: Robert Gottofrey)

Recently Keen released profiles of their Stand contest winners. For each of the categories, entrants had to provide a write-up of their idea for "changing the world," a budget, and a personal statement about who they were and why they deserved the prize. In return, they won US$25,000 to implement their visions. Probably the ones I am most interested in are the engineer who plans to recycle plastic trash collected from the roadsides in Haiti to be converted into footwear (croc-like??); and to a lesser extent (only because its not very original) in another engineer who will be using her prize money to build water pipelines in Kenya.


2. Dell's Regeneration Green Computing Challenge:


The Lawn PC, one of five finalists from Dell's Regeneration challenge (source: regeneration.org)

You've all probably heard about toll e-waste (electronic waste) is taking on the developing world. Most of the toxic e-waste from the developed world ends up in landfills in the poorer parts of the world. So Dell decided to take responsibility and run a contest for greener design. As of a few days ago, Five finalists have been chosen and its upto you to vote for your favorite. Computers, with One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and others, are changing the world and continue to break down a lot of education barriers in the developing world. Green computing will improve access to the electronic world and education in the developing world, without increasing the damage that has already been done. Very important.


3. INC.com's Inspired Innovations Great Idea Contest:



Unlike the rest, this is still running. If you have an idea that will change the world, submit it here and you'll get some cash, venture funding, and other resources to make your dream come true. HURRY, applications are due May 9th. According to their website, here's what the contest is about:

Let us hear about your great idea. Give your submission a headline that describes your idea in brief, and then tell us about your innovation in an essay, being sure to include:

A thorough description of the idea -- Is it a product, a service, an enhancement to something that exists already? The market it serves -- Who is the target market and what need does the idea serve so well?

Be creative in your submission -- sell us on why your idea is truly innovative.

Note: We recommend you create your submission in a word-processing program prior to submitting. Each submission should be no longer than 5,000 characters with spaces. After reviewing and editing your essay, you can cut and paste it into the form below.

Related Posts:
Playpump International
The Development Marketplace and other social competitions/conferences