I wanted to do a project on Women and Water and so I spent this summer trying to figure out what would be the best thing to do. When I first googled the topic, I was swamped with information. But not all this information was relevant. And there were many things that I needed to know that I could not find (or took very long to find). One thing I realized was that a lot of research has been done on safe clean drinking water. There are a lot of products and systems out there tackling the issue, but there is no one place to get all this information. And thus I took it upon myself to create a portal where one could find a way to implement projects related to water, sanitation, and hygiene specific to a certain geographic area. Below, is my final presentation for the same.
After visiting the different villages in Africa over the summer, and now Chhattisgarh over the last few days, I found that most villages had access to a borewell and clean drinking water. But this water got contaminated in its journey from this source to the individual household. The jerrycans or pots that were used to fill water were pretty dirty, the women and children collecting the water did not wash their hands, and the same hand went into the pot while carrying the water, transporting this heavy load from Point A to B was a nightmare. And these were just stored out in the open with nothing to cover and protect this valuable source from insects and other contaminants. I see an opportunity for a well designed storage-cum-transportation device. And while many people have tried to address this issue (Q-drum, hippo roller, etc.) I did not really see anyone is the villages using these products. For some reason, they seem to unfamiliar in the current landscape of things. I believe here lies a great design opportunity.
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