Auto Tap

In Africa, one has to manually open the tap and close a tap before and after respectively to wash their hand. It is important to note that, access to water in developing countries is limited. As such, hand washing is usually done publicly which has the tendency to expose the virus to more people. According to WHO, the coronavirus stays on a surface for up to 12 hours.

Our solution is an easily installed and detachable automatic tap that allows the flow of water. This innovation is low cost and can be used on any water tank, dispenser or outlet. It makes use of renewable energy like solar, and can be easily installed in homes, markets, schools etc. with no prior knowledge in technology. 

Our solution will ensure that proper hand washing is encouraged while preventing the spread of the virus. It will promote good hygeine in public places.

Hand washing according to the World Health Organisation is a much more powerful weapon against germs than many of us realise. Since the emergence and spread of the COVID-19 disease, WHO indicates that the coronavirus stays on a surface for up to 12 hours. 

As a result of this, individuals are encouraged to wash their hands with soap and water frequently for at least 20 to 30 seconds. Unfortunately, over 700 million people in sub-saharan Africa do not have access to clean water for hand washing

As such, hand washing is usually done publicly in most cities and towns. However, one has to manually open a tap and close a tap before and after respectively to wash their hand. This risk leaving the virus on the tap which can be transferred besides the high wastage of water during the manual process of hand washing.  Quite often, water washing devices used in schools, public latrines, health facilities, market places are accessed by thousands of people who are all touching the taps before and after washing. This is not very hygienic and can transfer disease and virus easily. 

Auto Tap is an affordable and smart detachable tap that automates water flow from any water holder, tank, or any water source with the use of a sensor. It replaces the manual open taps which can be a breeding place for the coronavirus.

This is a low-cost innovation, simple to make, detachable, and sustainable product that provides safety to individuals who want to wash their hands anywhere without having to touch the tap while saving water. It is a solar powered product and can also be charged with electricity where necessary.

When installed, individuals will have to take their hand closer to the auto tap without touching to make water flow. They take their hand off or wave beside the auto tap to stop the flow of water. 

The concept behind the Auto Tap is very simple. It uses basic electronics and IOT technology concept. The product has an IR receiver & transmitter pair that acts as sensors to detect the presence of hand beside or below the tap. It also uses solar energy considering the population who will use it.

This solution is most suitable in public places where there are water dispensers, markets, schools, homes, restaurants etc.

Our solution serves individuals in low income communities who are easily exposed to the virus because of the absence of proper hand washing facility. These are a population who typically live below the $2 poverty line and do not have constant water flowing in their homes. In this population, hand washing is a public phenomenon and cannot afford to consistently wash their hands. 

This population has low hygiene. They use shared toilet facility which is used by the entire community. They have large families who live in a single room and are more vulnerable to the corona virus.

To understand what their needs are, we have engaged with them through informal interviews to know the resources they have and how that resource can be used to help the communities to improve their hygiene levels, create simple hand washing system with local resources that can be used by large numbers without exposure to the virus and how do we support them to stay hygiene using public washrooms which is accessed by the entire community. 

Our solution will help them used local buckets to create a family hand washing set up. It will also improve hygiene at public wash rooms. 

The health, security and pandemic challenge is targeted at solutions that can stop or minimise the spread of the COVID 19 virus and other threats to human health. Since the emergence of the COVID 19 pandemic, Hand washing has been the simple but most important advice health experts have given. Though this advise maybe simple, there are millions of people in Africa who are not able to wash their hands because of no water and access to hand washing resources. We decided to create a solution that can be adapted to local resources, affordable and can improve hygiene

Automatic water dispensers are already existing solutions that are used in faucets around the world. In Ghana however, hand washing is done in the open and automatic taps attached to faucets are not suitable. A common hand washing device used in Ghana in public is the Veronica Bucket (a local container used for hand washing).  

There have been some innovations that automate the water flow. However these innovations are very expensive, cannot be scaled, bulky and do not make use of the existing local resources. Unlike other innovations for automatic water dispenser without touch, our solution is affordable, can be adjusted to very water holder or outlet, portable and can be carried around easily. 

In addition to this, our solution is accessible for use by persons with disabilities, and its a multi-purpose solution for kitchen, bathroom, water tank which is relevant during and post COVID 19. It is detachable which makes it possible to be used for other purposes. This solution can serve as automatic tap for both water and liquid dispensers. 

Our innovation uses solar energy as a renewable source of energy which allows it to be used in remote places without electricity.. It also has a usb charging port as an alternate source of energy. Other solutions are not cordless and cannot be adapted in all situations.  What is most unique about our solution is the fact that, it is easily Installed and no prior knowledge in technology or electronics is required to install it. 

The concept behind the Auto Tap is very simple. The product has an IR receiver & transmitter pair that acts as sensors to detect the presence of a hand beside or below the tap. IR transmitter transmits infrared light, which sends information to the receiver when the infrared light is obstructed by a hand or an object.

The resistance of the receiver decreases with an increased infrared light. The output of IR receiver is taken by a microcontroller and then compares it to a preset value. If the IR receiver receives more light as compared to the set preset value of threshold, a signal is sent to a servo motor and servo motor rotates the knob of the water tap. This is how automation is attained.

This process is powered by 5 volt which we use solar energy as a primary source of energy with the option to also use electrical energy to charge the device. The device has a rechargeable battery installed which is charged by using solar energy. 

This solution utilises a widely use technology which is the use of IR obstacle avoidance sensors / ultra sonic sensors to detect object and act based on an instruction. It is a similar concept that is deployed in this technology. The use of a micro controller (Arduino nano) is a programmable circuit board that allows us to issue instructions for a function to be executed.

This is an existing technology that has been deployed in a simple way possible to create change. The servo motor is what controls the movement of the valve.  The technology or part is application in LEDs, remote controllers, games, among others.  This is a link to a video of the product demo : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH1HGkR6lp0

As indicated by WHO, we need to practice frequent hand washing to stop the spread of virus. Access to water and hand washing facility that can be used by large numbers is important. More importantly users of the hand washing devices do not have to touch the taps to reduce the spread. The interviews we carried out after indicated this, as the fears of these target group to use public water dispensers. The current devices do not have the accessory that makes the taps untouchable and smart to dispense water. 

The desired outcome of this innovation is to reduce the spread of the corona virus to save lives in some of the low income communities and among people who live below $2 per day. 

The primary input of our is to ensure that the product functions automatically using sensors so that public hand washing will be done without touching the tap. Secondly the product is detachable and adjustable to all forms of containers, buckets, existing water holders and tanks which allows it to be scaled, and empowers the local persons to create their personal hand washing devices. it uses solar as a renewable source of energy so it can be used without electricity in very deprived areas. The product will be distributed and implemented in partnership with organisations and individuals who might pay on behalf of the target users as their contribution to COVID 19.

The implementation of this product affects people who live on less than $2 directly including the homeless, individuals in deprived communities, market women, children in schools, street hawkers, among others. Health professionals, neighbours and families of these persons are affected indirectly.  With the implementation, we expect to see the users now washing their hands without touching the tap attached to the hand washing device in short term. We anticipate that this will translate into the users developing habits of frequent hand washing in public and improving their health and personal hygiene in the medium and long term respectively.

Our innovation can be used in hospitals, public institutions, public washrooms, public bus terminals, market places, schools, churches, mosques, events and large gatherings, restaurants, and in homes. 

Our innovation has the capacity to serve about 500 or more people in a day when exposed to sunlight. 

Currently, our 10 prototypes are serving approximately 6000 people in a week which is being used in some communities, public institutions and offices. 

This innovation if implemented and scaled will directly serve about 350,000 people in a week in one year.

In 5 years, our innovation will be scaled to other countries and will serve over 4 million people in a week. 

Our innovation has the potential on directly imparting large number of people in Africa, especially those in low income communities to reach thousands of households to improve personal hygiene and prevent the spread of infections. 

When auto tap is implemented, public use of hand washing devices will be more safer. The technology will reduce water usage and encourage hand washing among individuals in low communities which will raise hygiene levels. This device will also be used at public toilets to promote hygiene. In the long run, people will develop the habit of washing their hands frequently and this will improve health outcomes of the community and limit the spread of the corona virus. 

Our goal within the next year is to produce about 10,000 products. We hope that we can distribute this to all the 16 regions in Ghana to reach some of the most marginalised individuals for improved hand washing. We will focus on distributing and prioritise large amounts of our innovation to be used in schools, public washrooms, hospitals and low income communities. 

In the second to third year we hope to ensure that all public institutions and public places including stadia, offices, banks, market places, bus terminals among others have the product to encourage efficient hand washing. We hope to implement this in partnership with international development organisations and private organisations.

From the first year to the fifth year we hope to have strengthened our capacity with large scale production to expand to other countries like Togo, Nigeria, and Liberia. This will go on to impart more than 5 million users of our product in a week after the 5 year. 

Currently the barriers that exist for us to accomplish our goals in the next year is funding which will enable us to produce in large quantities. 

Secondly, we dont have the capacity to run large scale operations. This is a challenge we will face when we have to scale up.

Also, our strategy to scale up uses partnerships with international development organisations, private organisations and ngo's. We anticipate that establishing these partnerships might be a challenge in the beginning. 

We are currently working to acquire small grants which will allow us to produce and sell to households to raise revenues that can allow us to produce on large scale. We are also actively looking for COVID 19 funding to help scale our solution.  With regards to increasing capacity of our team, We also hope of hiring qualified and skilled talent engineering team who might not have the capacity to scale.  

Therefore we hope to hire the best engineering talents to join the team who can help improve the product, scale production and ensure that all the products released, sold, distributed are off the best quality and can help serve users over long periods. 

To ensure that we have partners who can join us to scale the impact, we intend to build a strong partnership team and also meet international development organisation to pitch the solution to them.

We have 4 full time staff working in the organisation. We have 3 part time staff and 2 contract staff. 

The team is made up of computer scientists, electronic and mechanical engineers, development and business specialist and this makes us well positioned to deliver the solution in the best capacity. The team lead Derick Omari, has over 5 years experience in founding and advising over 8 start ups. He is an expert in technology and disability having received several awards including an award from Queen Elizabeth II for leading innovation and disability and education, award from MTN Ghana for its work in transforming lives with Technology among others. He has also being named as the most influential young Ghanaian in science and technology in Ghana and one of the 10 in Africa. All this which he achieve on behalf of the team and shows the strength of the team in executing tasks. The team is a young team with an average age of 23 who have a least an undergraduate degree in computer science, mechanical engineering, marketing, business administration, biomedical engineering among others. We have also gathered experience in innovation, design, and engineering having worked on many projects to bridge educational and employment gaps among persons with disability.

We currently have 4 partners for the prototype development, testing and piloting. We have with Ghana Tech Lab who help to provide access to some components and materials for development. 

We also have partnership with Ashesi University and Ashesi Venture Incubator who provide expertise and platform to share our work to invite other partners. 

Kings Innovations and Rakata Labs organisations who support us to finance the prototype development as their contribution to COVID 19