Clean drinking water for bottom of pyramid

Aceh Province, in Indonesia was the scene of a long lasting civil conflict between nationalist forces and regional guerillas. This conflict ended a few months after the 2004 boxing day tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands and affected millions in the area. The province has seen a successful reconstruction, but economic development and especially employment are lagging behind. According to WHO only 23 percent of Indonesians have access to piped water. Even piped water in Indonesia is unsafe to drink without boiling. People without access to piped water normally get water from shallow well sources or rivers, which are often contaminated with bacteria. According to the WHO diarrhea, partly caused by unsafe drinking water, kills 35000 people in Indonesia each year. Indonesians are aware of the risks of drinking unsafe water and therefore do not often drink it untreated. Therefore people boil water using kerosene, LPG or wood. Urban poor buy (often unsafe) drinking water.

Current status

In 2008, ceramic water filters were tested in Aceh by Resilience in a small pilot (10 filters). It became clear that the filters fulfilled a great need and that appearance is very important. Based on this outcome new models were made with a better look and increased usability. For sustainability, Resilience helped to found Nazava Water Filters, a local, social company that import water filter candles and assembles them into ready to use products and markets them directly and to households. Nazava promised in an agreement to keep prices as low as possible. Nazava currently sells around 100 filters to consumers each month. This is promising but Nazava and Resilience lack funds to increase sales in poor areas where clean drinking water is hardest to get. Using own funds for this would drive up prices unacceptably. A one-off grant is needed to pay for an extensive awareness and promotion campaign. This is a cost effective way to provide drinking water to the poor.

Proposed Activities
1. Demonstration and promotion at community centres, health centres and local NGO’s
500 water filters will be used as demonstration filters in community centres, health clinics and local NGOs. This will provide these centres with a source of economic and healthy drinking water and at the same time provide Nazava with a trusted medium for the socialization of these devices. Indonesians are not used to drink water from water filters, which means that they need to be convinced of the quality of the water and the ease of use.

The water filters will not just be given away. They will be checked each 2 weeks to see if they are well maintained and whether they are still in use. If not they are taken away and placed at another site.
NGOs will get demonstration filters so they can test them in their projects but a condition will be that they do not give filters away for free. NGOs will be encouraged to distribute the appliances through existing resellers using a voucher system. In case there are no resellers yet in the area where the NGO is operating, Nazava will help to establish outlets.

2. Demonstration and promotion at rural markets
Nazava has done pilot promotional and awareness raising events at some markets of Banda Aceh. People could see the product, drink filtered water and get information. This method has proven successful and we want to expand it. We also plan to draw more attention to the demonstrations by using loudspeakers and trained entertainers.

To target consumers in the countryside, we plan to organize a total of 100 promotion events at weekly markets in rural towns of Aceh. These weekly markets are visited by inhabitants from the area. During the visits, the marketing team will also look for interested distributors in the villages and the in market town. At the same time, resellers and consumers will be trained in the use of the water purifiers.

3. Local leaders & important persons
We found that consumers are easier convinced when a respected person like a chief, an imam or the head of a women group already bought the product and explains it to other people. We therefore plan to actively involve such persons in our marketing strategy. A very important precondition in this is that the respected man or women must be really enthusiastic about the product. These rural leaders can also help in finding suitable resellers of Nazava water filters in that area.

4. Increase distribution network in rural areas.
The traders will be identified during the marketing activities that are outlined above. Resilience experienced that when demonstrating the filters many people are interested in becoming resellers of the products. Because we do demonstrations in a range of social institutions, rural markets as well as urban markets we meet with a wide range of people from a wide range of social backgrounds. The identified sales agents will receive a training on the use of the materials. Each sales point will get a banner and leaflets.

Improve health of people in Aceh by means of safe drinking water made with effective low cost water filters.
Decrease the amount of time, money and natural resources that poor households spend on acquiring drinking water. Increase employment and entrepreneurship in conflict and tsunami struck Banda Aceh. Expand the commercial supply chain of a line of innovative water filter models that are small, effective and affordable.

Goals

• 50000 people can purify their own water with water filters
• 10000 families use a Nazava water filter
• 40 rural and 60 urban shops sell filters and parts
• Relevant institutions have demo models
• A social enterprise can continue on its own

This project is sustainable because of its private sector approach. People pay for the water purifiers which means they have a higher incentive to use them. The social entrepreneur earns money by selling the filters which mean that is can continue to do so after the project ended. Why does it needs funds? Marketing water filters to poor consumers is not cheap. Were this to be paid from the turnover than prices of the water filters would become to expensive. Therefore, funds are needed to get sales of water filters to the poor on a faster track.