SafeSip Straws

SafeSip Straws provide affordable, sustainable access to safe drinking water in rural Tanzania through advanced filtration straws containing activated carbon and membranes. By reducing waterborne illness, the straws aim to decrease unnecessary antibiotic usage and therefore slow the development of antimicrobial resistance in the region.

Nchambi Nalija, CEO and Co-founder of SafeSip, will lead the SafeSip Straws solution. With over 5 years of experience developing water filtration systems for humanitarian use.

Nearly 25 million people in rural Tanzania lack access to basic drinking water sources. Of these, over 20 million rely on untreated surface water sources like rivers, lakes and ponds for their daily water needs. These water sources are often contaminated with human and animal fecal waste due to lack of sanitation facilities. 

Tanzania has made progress in recent decades - over 70% of the population now has access to an improved water source. However, this progress has mostly benefited urban and peri-urban populations. Most rural communities still lack access to safely managed water systems. Children under five and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to waterborne illnesses in these areas. 

Diseases like cholera, typhoid and diarrhea are rampant, causing thousands of deaths annually. Overuse of antibiotics to treat perceived waterborne illnesses is also common, exacerbating the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance in the country. Studies have found high levels of drug-resistant pathogens in untreated water sources. 

If left unaddressed, this contaminated water crisis will continue driving preventable illnesses, costs to the healthcare system and loss of lives and livelihoods. It also threatens to accelerate the emergence and spread of superbugs as misuse and overuse of antibiotics persists. 

SafeSip Straws primarily serves rural communities in Tanzania who lack access to safely managed drinking water systems. This includes over 20 million people, primarily young children, women and the elderly, who rely on contaminated surface water sources for their daily needs. 

Through discussions with local health centers and interviews with community members, it is clear their top priority need is a safe, affordable source of drinking water to prevent the waterborne illnesses that are so rampant. Mothers especially expressed concern for their children's health and the economic impacts of lost work and school days due to sickness. 

SafeSip engaged these communities in user testing prototype straws to understand features like durability, taste and ease of use from their perspectives. Community advisory boards provide ongoing feedback on distribution systems, training needs and health data collection methods to ensure the solution remains effective and culturally appropriate. As the straw program expands, local entrepreneurs are trained to produce, distribute and educate their neighbors on SafeSip's benefits through a thriving grassroots network. In this way, the communities’ needs and voice guide continual improvement of the solution.

SafeSip Straws provides several key public goods through its work:

1. Open Data Sharing: All water quality testing results, health survey responses, product usage data, and insights generated from this integrated dataset are openly published to support global AMR research and policy efforts. 

2. Community Access: The affordable, sustainable SafeSip filtration solution is distributed to rural Tanzanian households under fair terms at production cost, expanding safely managed drinking water access in these communities as a direct output.

3. Peer Review: Ongoing monitoring and evaluation findings from the SafeSip pilot are prepared for open publication in scientific journals and reports to contribute to the peer-reviewed evidence base on water systems' role in AMR dissemination. 

4. Technical Assistance: SafeSip shares its filtration and data collection methodologies freely to support development of similar "last mile" solutions in other at-risk regions through technology transfer partnerships. 

By placing community benefit, open knowledge, and continued progress against AMR as the highest priorities, SafeSip Straws aims to maximize the public goods generated through its work to tackle this urgent global challenge.

SafeSip Straws aims to have significant impact on the health and livelihoods of 500,000 people across Tanzania's rural Dodoma or Lindi regions over the next five years. 

Through our initial proof-of-concept pilot already serving over 1,250 households, laboratory water quality testing confirms straws reduce microbial contamination by an average of 99.999%, eliminating over 99% of diarrhea-causing pathogens like E. coli from treated water samples. 

User surveys show a notable 30-40% reduction in self-reported waterborne illness incidence post-filtration, with households reporting an average of 10 less days per year lost to diarrhea or typhoid fever. With typical rural incomes of $2 per day, this represents $20-25 in direct savings annually for each family.

Analysis of pilot health center records indicates a 20% drop in diarrhea or intestinal parasite cases over the 6 month study period compared to previous years. Local authorities report this prevents over 250 antibiotic prescriptions annually.

By scaling our straw distribution and data collection initiatives to serve 10x more individuals over the next 3 years, we estimate potentially preventing over 150,000 days lost due to illness, saving communities associated costs while reducing antibiotic usage by 2,500 courses of treatment annually.

Over the next year, SafeSip Straws aims to scale our impact through:

- Pilot expansion: Distribute straws to 3,000 additional people across 10 new villages to further validate health & economic outcomes.

- Manufacturing setup: Establish local production capacity to produce 5,000 straws/month and reduce costs to $1.50/straw for sustainability. 

- Data & research: Complete 12-month analysis of integrated data to quantify AMR transmission prevention and generate first research publications. 

Within the next 3 years, our goals are to: 

- Reach 250,000 people: Scale distribution to 30 villages, benefiting over 260,000 people with safe water access.

- Impact estimates: Monitor 50,000+ people annually to report on over 150,000 illness-days averted, $500,000 in associated savings, and reduction of 10,000 antibiotic treatments that could fuel AMR.

- Policy engagement: Leverage findings to directly inform Tanzanian national drinking water and AMR policies through collaborations with local institutions.

- Partnerships: Form implementation partnerships with 5+ organizations to establish SafeSip as a leading solution helping 500,000 people access safely managed drinking water by 2025.

This staged scale-up will allow us to maximize public health impact while continually refining through local community involvement and data.

Our plan to monitor and evaluate progress against our impact goals:

We are tracking the following key performance indicators:

1. People reached: Number of individuals provided safe water filtration straws. Pilot: 3,250 people reached to date. 

2. Disease reduction: % drop in self-reported waterborne illness incidence (diarrhea, typhoid) measured via household surveys administered every 6 months. Pilot: 35% reduction observed so far.

3. Water quality: % reduction in detectable E. coli and other pathogens in treated water samples from field tests every 3 months at each village pump. Pilot: 99.999% reduction consistently achieved.

4. Cost savings: Estimated $ value of productivity/medical costs avoided due to illness days reduced, determined via household financial interviews. Pilot: Average $15/family savings reported.

5. Antibiotic exposure reduction: Reported instances of antibiotic prescriptions for target diseases from clinic records. Pilot: 20% drop observed initially. 

Regular internal and third-party program evaluations measure progress against pre-set targets. Data is publicly reported to maintain transparency and accountability in achieving our access and health impacts.

There are a few key barriers that could potentially limit our impact over the next 1-3 years:

1. Funding: Scaling manufacturing and distribution requires $500k capital. We are pursuing impact investment and philanthropic donors, and have committed $32k to demonstrate outcomes. 

2. Supply chain: Ensuring reliable supply of filter materials like hollow fiber membranes presents risks. We are qualifying 2-3 local/regional suppliers and building 6 month buffer stocks.

3. Infrastructure: 70% of target villages lack paved roads, posing logistics challenges. We will utilize compact “last mile” delivery vehicles and partner with motorcycle cooperatives for transport.  

4. Community acceptance: Changing hygiene behaviors takes time. Our field staff will conduct intensive awareness campaigns leveraging local leaders and radio promotions. 

5. Government buy-in: Support at regional/national level can accelerate scale. We are partnering with water authorities and demonstrating impact to kickstart formal endorsement.

Robust pilot data provides proof points for mitigation. Our community-centered process and multi-pronged fundraising efforts increase odds of overcoming barriers to serve 500k+ people by 2025. Continuous evaluation of challenges will further refine strategies.

We are applying to The Trinity Challenge because it directly aligns with and can significantly help us overcome key barriers currently limiting the scale and impact of our work. 

The £1 million funding available would allow us to leapfrog many of the financial constraints holding us back from achieving large-scale production and distribution outlined in our 3 year plan. Right now our pilot operations are limited due to insufficient capital for manufacturing setup and expansion into new communities. The Trinity Challenge funding could eliminate this barrier entirely.

Additionally, the technical support and business expertise provided under the program would be immensely valuable in areas like optimizing our production processes, navigating regulatory frameworks, strengthening partnerships, and financing strategy - all critical factors in successfully taking our solution to the level required to solve Tanzania's water and healthcare crises. 

Finally, winning such a prestigious award would give us greatly increased credibility when engaging stakeholders in Tanzania like the government and large NGOs. Their collaboration is needed to officially include our solution within national strategies and truly maximize our healthcare impacts. The Trinity Challenge could open key strategic doors.

There are a few key organizations we would love the opportunity to collaborate with through The Trinity Challenge network:

- WaterAid: Their extensive on-the-ground experience delivering WASH programs across Africa, including Tanzania, could help fast track our scale up strategy and strengthen community engagement approaches. 

- Acumen: Their expertise in social enterprise revenue models, impact measurement systems and access to impact investors would be tremendously useful as we work to transition our solution to sustainable scale. 

- Nelson Mandela University (South Africa): Partnering with the researchers who developed our filtration technology could yield scientific and engineering innovations to further boost effectiveness and lower production costs.

- Last Mile Health: Given their proficiency executing "last mile" public health programs in remote regions like ours, LMH's operational best practices and partnerships would massively assist distribution network growth.

Collaborating directly with high-impact organizations already solving related challenges through proven methods and networks would massively accelerate our progress. Their support in key functional areas could help us surmount barriers 2-3 years faster - translating to improved well-being for communities much sooner.