Camille Saad, Deepak Saksena,

1

• Camille Saadé, Deepak Saksena,
• Dipankar Barkakati, and Christian Winger
• HWTS 2009 Dublin

2
Background

• USAIDs Point-of-Use Water Disinfection and Zinc
  Treatment (POUZN) Project objectives are to test
  a number of program models to produce scalable,
  sustainable and cost-effective strategies for
  increasing use of POU water purification methods
  and devices amongst the poor in India.

3
Range of POU Options Available

• BOILING CHLORINATION
• SODIS WATER PURIFIERS

4
The Poor Rarely Perform Water Disinfection

• Little perceived connection between waterborne
  pathogens and water contamination
• Lack of awareness of multi-point water
  contamination
• Disinfection traditionally used as emergency
  measure
• Lack of proper supply chains for POU products in
  rural and remote areas
• Little ability to pay current financing schemes
  exclude the poor

5
Baseline

• POUZN baseline data showed 4.3 use of any POU
  method in Uttar Pradesh (UP)
• UP is the most populous state in India gt 180
  million
• UP has the lowest health indicators It
  contributes to 28 of diarrhea mortality burden
  in India

6
Pilot Project

• Targeted 12,000 people in rural and urban slums
• Worked with community-based NGOs
• POUZN trained community-based NGO workers to work
  with Self-Help Groups (SHGs) on POU water
  treatment
• NGO workers sensitized
• and gave SHG members
• a choice of all POU methods

7
Why Self-Help Groups?

• Groups of 12-14 women who come together to avail
  microfinance for income generation and other
  needs
• Several million SHGs in India (and growing
  rapidly), out of which 50 are formed directly by
  NGOs and take part in micro-credit activities

8
Results of Pilot

• POU was adopted by 95 of urban residents
• 66 chlorine
• 29 filters
• POU was adopted by 77 of rural residents
• 74 chlorine
• 2 filters

9
Successes of the Pilot Project

• Increased awareness of POU solutions among SHG
  members with help of manufacturers and CBOs
• Made a variety of POU products available with the
  help of manufacturers and distributors
• Facilitated affordability with NGO/MFI help
• Built community distribution networks through
  micro-distributors
• Sustained the NGOs work through profit-sharing
  among manufacturers and MFIs/SHGs

10
Going to scale

• This project has gone to scale with 1.185 million
  people in UP using SHGs and other community
  groups (Joint Liability Groups in urban slums)
  as existing platforms and going beyond to the
  rest of the community.
• The at-scale goals are to achieve 30 rural and
  40 urban use of a POU method

11
Long-term

• Monitoring continues to measure long-term
  behavior change and product use

12
Lessons Learned

• Tipping point is reached when a household
  realizes its water is bad and it needs to do
  something about it
• A strong BCC tool can help reach the tipping
  point in just 15 minutes
• Solutions must be offered simultaneously to
  resolve the problem
• People like to be given
• multiple options

13
Lessons Learned

• SHGs are extremely effective vehicle for behavior
  change (IPC)
• Generic and branded promotion efforts should be
  conducted separately
• NGOs should use generic communications to help
  families reach the tipping point
• Commercial manufacturers should handle branded
  promotion after the tipping point has been
  reached

14
Lessons Learned

• Urban and rural poor are different perception
  of problem, access to water source, need for
  adapted solutions (access, affordability, size,
  etc)
• Microfinance/installment schemes are essential
  for filter acquisition
• A long term, low intensity follow-on intervention
  driven by community workers can successfully
  maintain behaviors

15
Sustained Use

• Monitor users of POU to
• Track migration between POU methods
• Identify regular, sustainable users
• Apply cascade of influence strategy (micro BOP)
• Use Positive Deviance approach to influence rest
  of community

16
THANK YOU

• For more information, contact
• Camille Saade csaade_at_aed.org
• AED website http//www.aed.org