WaterWorks

Access to hand washing in Africa is limited due to lack of facilities and water resources, which limits preventative measures in times of pandemic. We created a portable, low-cost, water-efficient hand washing system that is easily scalable across households and public spaces in low-income and crowded communities to limit the contact spread of disease. If scaled globally, our solution will increase hand washing facility access in communities and limit the spread of many communicable diseases in populations that are most vulnerable, while increasing hygiene and instilling hand washing habits in populations.

Hand hygiene practices have been identified as one of most reliable methods to prevent spread of infection and pathogen contamination by the World Health Organization. Several regions around the world do not follow these practices due to limitations in resources available, especially in Africa, where the majority of the population do not have access to hand wash facilities. A reported 115 people die every hour in the region due to poor sanitation and nearly 41% have no hand washing facility access. This is one of the main reasons why disease outbreaks such as H1N1, MERS-Cov, Ebola and COVID-19 have severely affected this region. 

With the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic affecting several countries around the world, Africa is most at risk of becoming the next large epicentre for the disease in the upcoming months. The WHO estimates that Sars-Cov-2 will infect ¼ of the African population and cause 190,000 deaths by the end of this year. To limit the spread of the disease, early precautionary measures need to be taken that would protect the population from being infected and assist it in limiting the spread.

WaterWorks focuses on helping Africans in densely populated regions by providing a hand-washing system that will enhance hand-washing facility access and improve hand hygiene practices for individuals with the goal to prevent community spread of pathogens by contact. We focus on providing a portable hand washing station that is exceptionally water-efficient and cost-effective for low-income and densely populated regions. 
Our system consists of a double reservoir with clean water in the base vessel and grey water collection in the top vessel. It is operated by a foot pump mechanism that requires no electricity. The top vessel is easily removable for easy disposal, and the tubing is easily removable to facilitate filling of the base vessel. Our testing reveals: 250 hand washes can be achieved per 10L of water, averaging 40mL per hand wash, which is 11x more water efficient than the currently used continuous flow gravity based hand washing solutions. In addition, the portability, easy scalability and simple mechanism of our system makes it easily accessible to households and public spaces in even the lowest income, isolated and water-scarce communities in Africa and the world. Demonstration of an early functional prototype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvMZES42nYc&=&feature=youtu.be

Currently, hand washing systems in vulnerable African communities are either non-existent, or centralized (not ideal for social distancing and high frequency hand-washing necessary in pandemic) + water-wasteful (not ideal for water-scarce environments requiring frequent trips to nearest water source). These communities are also most vulnerable to disease outbreaks, due to poor hand washing material access and sanitation behaviours, predisposing conditions, and limited access to healthcare facilities. Our product is portable to provide easy filling & presence in every household (allow for social distancing) & exceptionally water and cost efficient. 

Our initial focus will be regions in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone focusing primarily on densely populated, low-income communities. We wish to partner with existing organizations and WASH programs to implement our system.  Our future plans involve potentially manufacturing the system in Africa using recycled materials to create an eco friendly and local solution, and partnering with the government and education systems to introduce the system in schools and refugee camps in order to increase access to hand-washing facilities and to instill good hand-washing habits. We aim to directly partner with leaders of these communities to analyze the value that our system brings and improve it based on their needs. 

Our identified problem and solution relate very well to the challenge because we chose to develop our solution in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic and with future pandemics in mind. Hand washing is the most effective preventative measure for nearly ALL communicable diseases, yet only 41% of the world's population have access to a hand washing station. These two facts mean that the majority of the world population cannot practice even the most basic and simple solution to protecting their health. Our solution is here to change that, by providing hand washing for all.

We focus on providing a portable hand washing station that is exceptionally water-efficient and cost-effective for low-income and densely populated regions. Our system consists of an incredibly simple mechanism - a double reservoir with clean water in the base vessel and grey water collection in the top vessel. It is operated by a pump mechanism using a conventional, foot operated rubber pump. The top vessel is easily removable for easy disposal, and the tubing is easily removable to facilitate filling of the base vessel. Our testing reveals: 250 hand washes can be achieved per 10L of water, averaging 40mL per hand wash, which is 11x more water efficient than the currently used continuous flow gravity based hand washing solutions. The small footprint and portability of our system means that it will be easy to fill in areas where water is not easily accessible and ensures that it can be scaled for use within individual households and public spaces such as schools, healthcare areas and religious spaces  

Competition:

Currently, hand washing solutions in the targeted communities are either non-existent, or consist of wasteful and centralized solutions, such as hand immersion (incredibly wasteful of water, favorizes bacterial and parasitic contamination and spread and mosquito breeding) and tippy tap and gravity based trickle systems (usually centralized in communities making social distancing impossible, incredibly water wasteful and are not portable or easily fillable). Commercial hand washing stations are not an option due to high cost, non-availability, not portable nor easily fillable. 

Manual fuel line pump drives water from the base vessel through the input tubing out towards the output tubing which projects it through the faucet-like extension and into the grey water collection vessel. 

Our testing reveals: 250 hand washes can be achieved per 10L of water, averaging 40mL per hand wash, which is 11x more water efficient than the currently used continuous flow gravity based hand washing solutions.

Demonstration of an early functional prototype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvMZES42nYc&=&feature=youtu.be

We all need clean water to wash our hands, keep our homes and hospitals clean and protect against COVID-19. But many people in Africa struggle to access this vital resource which puts them at risk. Our aim is to provide a low-cost, efficient hand washing system for low income communities In Nigeria and ultimately Across West Africa. 

Our ToC contains 4 different activities that are aimed at promoting and instilling hand-washing and sanitation behaviors: (1) Instilling WaterWorks system in communities, (2) Partnering and coordinating with existing organizations to intervene in communities, (3) Adapting training materials, and (4) Using Community based participatory approaches. 

These activities will generate 3 outcomes: (1) Increased access to hand-washing facilities, (2) Adaptability to the system in communities, and (3) Recruitment of individuals to grow target population usage.

The above activities and outcome will yield 2 short term outcomes: (1) Avoid pandemic situations (acute spikes in case numbers), and (2) Knowledge relating to sanitation and hand-washing benefit.

In addition, 3 medium term outcomes that will be outputted: (1) Reduce the transmission rate of bacterial and viral disease, (2) Education on good hand washing habits, and (3) Improve intention to practice hand-washing and sanitation.

Ultimately, our model aims to yield 3 long term outcomes: (1) Lower morbidity, mortality from infectious disease, (2) Improved hygiene, health and wellbeing, and (3) Preserve water and have less water wastage.

We are targeting 3 regions including Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone within the two years of our operations. Our aim is to reach individuals living in low-income, densely populated areas of these locations. Based on WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme 2019 data, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone’s population have 18%, 39%, and 16% have access to safely managed and basic service sanitation. In our first year our focus in Nigeria will be in the states Kano and Lagos ––  Kano is the home to nearly 13.4 million people whereas, Lagos, accumulates nearly 14 million people. These two states represent nearly 15% of Nigeria’s entire population indicating densely populated ares in the region. In one year our solution will serve 5% of the target population in Lagos, Nigeria and Kano, Nigeria. In 5 years, we see the solution serving 15% percent of the target population   

According to the study conducted in 2018 demographics in Nigeria only 50% of the population in these regions have basic water needs, which converts to nearly 13.5 million without water in the region. The basic sanitation needs lie at 45% lower than the water availability in the regions which is an important factor in preventing community spread of COVID-19. 

With all these limitations present in the region an urgent action needs to be taken to prevent any chance of an outbreak occurring in the region.

Within the next year:

• Partner with organizations that have existing relationships and experiences with low-income communities to introduce and test our solution into target markets (Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone).

• Engage with governments to instill the WaterWorks system in education systems and health systems that have limited access to resources.

• Engage with community leaders to promote and drive the frequency of hand washing, in hopes of creating long-lasting practices in low-income communities.

Next five years

• Secure additional grants to help expand our solution across additional communities across Africa.

• Expand solution to 3-5 additional African countries with low levels of sanitation.

• Frequently visit communities that have adapted the WaterWorks system to evaluate the success of the product in people’s livelihood. 

• Evaluate and develop further methods for acquiring additional resources that our target market will need to improve and instill the WaterWorks system in individuals’ daily lives.

• We wish to eventually mass manufacture our system locally in Africa by partnering with plastics manufacturing facilities to expand our reach and impact while stimulating the local economy and providing an eco-friendly, streamlined design.

Potential implications we face include:

1. Limited financial resources to fund our project

2. Missing technical skills that can help further our initiative and implementation

3. All team members are located in different countries and as a result it is difficult for us to physically meet.

1. Tackling financial limitations: We are sending out proposals to potential funders to fund our project as well as apply for grants from a wide range of organizations.

2. Missing Technical skills → On an ongoing basis we are reaching out to mentors and experts across the public health/public policy field for consultation. This will give us exposure and effective methods on implementing our solution.

3. Team being spread out → We defined roles and responsibilities for each team member so that we can work efficiently and productively. We also schedule bi-weekly conference calls with all team members for check-ins and to discuss project updates and further planning. Additionally, we communicate daily on Slack.

Not currently registered as any organization, but aiming to register as non-profit while also potentially partnering with a larger organization with similar mission and values. 

4 people currently in our core team.

Our team includes individuals from a range of backgrounds including medical, public health research, bioinformatics and digital marketing fields. Our team’s multidisciplinary skill set grants us an understanding of the current issues affecting low resource settings from multiple points of view, allowing us to take a holistic approach to developing a realistic, cost-effective, easily scalable and impactful product. We also have first hand experience with some members who live on the continent to directly implement our solution in communities.

N/A

Key resources needed to run and implement our activities include people (field managers, industry experts, etc.), financing, government approval, community access and security. Partners + key stakeholders that will be essential to delivering our program include, but are not limited to: government/policy makers, local police, community leaders/influencers, water treatment facilities, and partner organizations. Our organization will be carrying out 4 different activities that are aimed at promoting and instilling hand-washing and sanitation behaviors: (1) Instilling WaterWorks system in communities, (2) Partnering and coordinating with existing organizations to intervene in communities, (3) Adapting training materials, and (4) Using Community based participatory approaches. Our biggest expenditures will fall under: product (WaterWorks system) production and distribution, security and administrative costs. We will reach users and customers through 3 channels: (1) partnership with non-governmental organizations, (2) local government units, and (3) government bodies.

Using the WaterWorks system we will target 4 main segments that can benefit from our intervention: (1) low income households, (2) rural communities, (3) schools, and (4) public spaces. Our service will be funded by grants and will be provided free of cost to the customer. User value proposition gained from using our product include: Increased access to hand-washing within individual households, improved sanitation habits and lower morbidity + mortality from infectious diseases, increased water efficiency, and portability/easily fillable/maintainable. We will show our social impact through longitudinal data collection through partnerships with community leaders and public health bodies, generating yearly reports and conducting frequent user satisfaction surveys.

We plan to initially fund our product with sustained grants and donations in order to distribute it as quickly as possible to increase sanitation in vulnerable communities in the context of COVID-19. 

Further down the road, when we are able to manufacture the product in Africa after identifying plastics recycling plants, we will attempt to partner with large NGO's or government bodies to fund the process. 

Solve will help fund and support aspects of the most important stage of our project - getting our product into at least 3 communities. . By September, we will have a streamlined prototype and will be ready to join a supportive community of funders and receive mentorship to make sure our project has the most impact possible. We are applying to solve to help grow or business model to distribute our innovative system and ensure hand washing access in many parts of Africa and beyond, whether it be refugee camps in Greece and Turkey, slums in South America, isolated and rural communities in Asia, and more. 

Solve will help us identify sources of funding, and help us get connected with manufacturers that can create our materials locally with eco friendly, recycled products. We look forward to being considered for this program. 

We wish to create partnerships at many levels:

1. Recruit local manufacturers for system production. Identify manufacturers who use recycled plastic or other eco friendly materials for our design. 

2. Create partnerships with community leaders and strategic distributors such as water distribution companies to distribute our product to the most remote areas and ensure receptivity to our solution. Local leaders will help overcome language barriers, explain the solution and advocate for its use.

3. Partner with NGOs to participate in WASH programs, and use their outreach, advocacy and educational resources to instill good hand washing habits. Partner with NGOs and public health organizations to measure the impact of our solution, collect and analyse data and bring improvements. 

4. Partner with the government and education sectors to bring our solution into schools and public places, and to explore government funding.

WHO, Unicef, Smaller organizations with similar missions and values - ex: Project Full Belly and WASH programs in order to use their reach and resources within Africa to distribute our product and gather data and metrics to illustrate value. We would also like to partner with the aforementioned organisation's educational programs along with the education systems and schools in the targeted countries to include education capsules, infographics, etc. with our product to increase good sanitation habits. In addition we would like to partner with Plastics recycling plants in Africa to eventually manufacture a streamlined product in the continent to stimulate the local economy and create an eco friendly solution. 

We qualify for the People's prize because our solution is directly relevant to multiple SDG's - clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, good health and well being, reduced inequalities. The impact our solution has the potential to bring, if scaled, will directly address the issues that represent the sustainable development goals and bring palpable change within communities during COVID-19 and beyond. 

We will use the people's prize to acquire promotional support in order to gather financial means to fund the manufacturing process of our product and to fund the expansion into more communities and vulnerable populations.