Community-Level Clean Water: Nepal

Greetings! 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my crowdfunding page.

By the time you finish watching this video, 15 children will have died from diarrheal disease.  That’s crazy, and preventable.  My name is Derek, and together we can change the world. . .

We take clean water for granted.  If you don’t believe me, please consider that in the last several hours, you’ve probably relieved yourself into water that’s remarkably cleaner than what over a quarter of the planet has access to.  For much of the world, clean water is a daily struggle.  Which is why I am working with engineers and drinking water experts at UC Berkeley to develop a low-cost, sustainable, easily-integrated water treatment system that can change people's lives and their health. 

In order to provide cost-effective, low-maintenance, community-level access to clean water, my system borrows from two well-established techniques, with some important improvements and modifications.

The first treatment method is called slow-sand filtration.  Slow sand filtration has been in practice for over 100 years.  All it requires is a container, course gravel, and fine sand; and it incorporates physical, chemical, and biological processes into a single step to produce water that’s incredibly clear and safe to drink.  The other treatment is known as Solar disinfection or SODIS, which, like me, has been around since the 80’s. Traditionally carried out in 1-2 L plastic bottles, SODIS relies on nothing more than exposure to the sun’s UV rays to kill pathogens directly, by damaging their genetic material, proteins, and outer covering, and indirectly, by promoting the formation of what are known as reactive oxygen species. 

Both of these techniques have their merits and their drawbacks, but in conjoining these two processes at the community level we can highlight their strengths and mitigate their challenges - such a waste-generation, production limitations, and household-level behavior change barriers.

As you can imagine, someone will have to maintain these installations and operate them.  Solving this quandary results in two great outcomes.  Working closely with our partners at ENPHO, these installations will be managed by women’s groups as a form of income generation.  Essentially, villagers will pay these social entrepreneurs a very modest fee for a day’s-worth of clean drinking water, creating a system that can sustain itself!

At this point, you’re hopefully saying “Clean water, income generation, and gender equality?!  I like all those things!”  Me too!  And I need your help to make this possible. Money is a form of energy, and you can put yours toward making a strong and positive difference right away. With your support I will be able to return to work with partner communities in Nepal this summer and implement actionable pilot systems within 8 months. With your help and the critical partnerships I’ve formed in Nepal, this treatment system could be implemented in villages and primary schools across the country in just a couple of years. And that’s only the start!  This system can easily be adapted to work in communities throughout the developing world.  We will salvage adults’ wellbeing and productivity, protect children’s growth and cognitive function, we will change lives.

Clean drinking water is not a silver bullet for addressing the crippling impact of diarrheal disease in the developing world, but it is a tremendous start.  To ensure the success of this project I’ve partnered directly with Environment and Public Health Organization (or ENPHO), Nepal’s largest water sanitation and hygiene nongovernmental organization.  Together, we will see to it that these systems are installed as a component of a broader plan to promote access to adequate sanitation and hygiene infrastructure where it is lacking.  Please give. Your drop in the bucket will make ripples of clean water all over the world. Thank you for your time and your support, I am so glad we are taking this on together. Please tell your friends, your family, co-workers. The more people who buy-in, the greater good we can do!


Notes:

While $5000 will cover prototype materials, lab equipment, and some travel expenses, it does not provide any stipend to support me while I work on this project full-time throughout the next several months.  Any sum I raise above my goal, up to $2000, will go towards offsetting my family's expenses during this time.

Please check back soon for links to detailed information about my installation's mechanisms, design considerations, operation, and maintenance!   (If you're interested in that sort of thing...)