Digital Literacy Bolivia Project #7089

Develop an indicator for Solar Water Disinfection

by SODIS Foundation

Project Report | Jan 20, 2012
January update and upcoming opportunity

By Matthias Saladin | Project Leader

First generation prototype

Dear supporters,

It has been a while since we last informed you about our activities regarding the development of an indicator for solar radiation. We are interested in such an indicator because solar radiation is a very effective means to disinfect drinking water (see www.sodis.ch for more information on the SODIS method), and one of the factors limiting the widespread use of this method is the fact that radiation dose is difficult for laypersons to estimate. With a simple SODIS indicator, this hurdle may be overcome and thus the task of bringing safe drinking water to millions of people in the world made easier.

In 2010, we were invited by GlobalGiving to set up an open innovation challenge for such an indicator. The challenge was presented on one of the leading open innovation platforms (www.InnoCentive.com) and participation has been overwhelming. Among more than 70 entries we identified a winner, which at that time was a team of students from the University of Washington. Motivated by this success, the team then developed a business plan and in 2011 won an international business plan competition. During this time, the students set up their own company (PotaVida.org), which will now focus on the technical development of the indicator.

The key point in advancing the idea of a low-cost SODIS indicator is to produce it in large quantities. However, at the current stage, we want to try these indicators in the field and keep improving them, so we need small quantities. We expect the final price to be below 5 USD per unit and thus even cheaper than we originally anticipated. But for the moment, we are making small productions of prototype series, which are costly. However, we are confident that within a few months we will have a product which meets the needs of users and which can be produced massively.

Currently, we are negotiating with several groups who are working on the idea of a SODIS indicator in order to produce a next generation prototype which can be field tested. In the next few weeks, we will inform you about the results of these negotiations and the next steps of our project.

We also want to inform you about an important fundraising opportunity coming up soon: Between February 1 and 29, all donations received through www.globalgiving.org to our project will be matched by 200%! That is, for each dollar donated, Global Giving will add two more, thus tripling the amount you donate. We think this is a great opportunity to achieve a great impact and support this important initiative further. Please share this information with friends and families who may be interested in making a donation.

Best regards from the whole project team,

Matthias Saladin

Alternative set-up: Prototype II

Links:

General Information on the method of Solar Water Disinfection

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Oct 25, 2011
October update

By Matthias Saladin | Project leader

School kids with SODIS bottles

Dear supporters,

We just received news from the Global Giving Foundation that very soon our supporters will be able to donate by sending a text message from their cellular phone. The best part of it is that 100% of the donation goes to the project. This is very exciting news and we shortly will inform you about the details.

We also wanted to let you know how our project to develop a low-cost indicator for Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) is developing. We have just completed a series of calibration tests with our prototype, which gave us proof that we are on track. The next step for this project now is to produce a small series of prototypes with an improved form factor so that we can give them to potential users of the product. This is very important as the acceptance and user friendliness of a product determine the value it provides to the user. We therefore are now raising funds to produce the small series of prototypes for field testing.

Over the past months, we have adjusted our primary target audience for the SODIS indicator. Initially, we expected that this would be a device which can help every person or family who wants to purify drinking water with the SODIS method to determine the exact moment when the water is safe for drinking. However, given that most of these people earn less than 1 dollar per day, they are unlike to be able to purchase such a product. Giving the indicators for free is an option, but this creates inequalities (who do we give it to?) and inefficiencies (there are no established channels for widely distributing free products). Additionally, we perceived that free products are often considered of low value by the beneficiaries. Thus, we think that a better strategy is to develop a product which will help people like teachers or health promoters to train others on how to do SODIS. If this promotion process can be supported by the SODIS indicator, we may reach additional people, and more people will be willing to try the method for a first time.

Best regards from the whole project team,

Matthias Saladin

Links:

New publication on the positive impact of SODIS

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Aug 8, 2011
August update

By Matthias Saladin | Project leader

Dear supporters,

Our project to develop an indicator to simplify the application of Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) is making good progress: we calibrated a first series of prototypes and at the same time are already working on a second generation prototype. For this second generation, we obtained free support of a professional design company in Seattle.

The calibration measurements confirmed that our idea of powering the device with solar energy is working well. The idea is quite obvious because the method of SODIS also is based on solar energy. However, we first had to prove that the solution works in practice and that it is cost-effective. This is crucial because we do not want to loose one of the key advantages of the SODIS method: it’s low cost. In fact, SODIS is essentially for free: you only need common PET bottles and sunshine (for more details on how the method works, you may want to check out www.sodis.ch) in order to obtain safe drinking water.

With the results from the calibration phase, we are now preparing a next project phase, which will include the production of a small series of the improved prototype. These devices will then be demonstrated to potential users and promoters of the SODIS method in several countries and regions. With the feedback from these demonstrations we will guide a next phase of development. We expect to complete production of the small series by the end of November and start the demonstrations after that.

If you are interested in the method of Solar Water Disinfection, you may want to subscribe to the SODIS newsletter of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (http://www.sodis.ch/news/newsletter/index_EN). This is the research institute which carried out much of the early investigations on SODIS and continues to function as a global reference center for the method. They estimate that by now, 3-5 million people worldwide are using SODIS to disinfect their drinking water, a number which has been confirmed by the Joint Monitoring Programme of WHO/UNICEF (http://www.wssinfo.org/). Even though this is an impressive achievement for a completely non-commercial method, it is not even 1 percent of the people who currently lack access to an improved water source (currently more than 1 billion people worldwide!).

Thus, methods like SODIS, but also other simple methods to disinfect water at point of consumption need to be promoted on a much greater scale if we want to stop a child dying every 15 seconds from diarrhea. We expect that the indicator we are currently developing will be an important step in this direction, and we are thankful for all the support we obtain in pursuing this goal. We will continue to inform you about progress on our side and are looking forward to hearing back from you.

Best regards from the whole project team,

Matthias Saladin

P.S. Please mark October 19^th on your agenda – this will be this year’s last chance to have your donation complemented. Each donation you make that day (up to the amount of 1,000 US$) will be increased by 30%, making your contribution create even more impact.

Links:

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