Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

This simple, innovative device from India is a wheeled water container that enables the collection and transport of 3 to 5 times as much water as usual per trip, as well as hygienic storage, saving valuable time for productive activities and improving health. By facilitating easier access to water, the WaterWheel reduces the burden of water collection, saves valuable time, and improves health. In the process, it enables women and children to engage in more productive activities, such as school and work.

A safe, affordable and re-usable women's personal hygiene kit that empowers women to be the decision-makers regarding menstrual hygiene management, reproduction and the prevention of HIV in low-resource settings Menstruation, contraction of HIV and unplanned pregnancies are health issues that impact and restrict young women in low-income settings from living full, dignified and economically productive lives. Providing an affordable kit that addresses these issues will empower girls and women to be the decision makers regarding their own lives.

Every year since 2010, Uganda's AFRIpads company has doubled production of low-cost, washable cloth menstrual kits designed for up to one year’s use, increasing rural access to affordable feminine hygiene (15% of the cost of disposable pads), eliminating reliance on makeshift materials, thereby improving women's health and chances for education and work. Some 120,000+ kits have been distributed so far, mostly by NGOs. The project will improve supply chains, distribution and awareness-raising.

This is a cook stove that utilises biodegradable biomass and performs two tasks simultaneously: cook the contents in the pot while heating water in an inner boiling chamber.

Mumtaz Arthur and colleagues of Biofilcom Ltd. in Ghana will develop and field test a prototype toilet facility that incorporates an aerobic digester to decompose waste along with a low-cost microflush valve that uses minimal amounts of wastewater from the washbasins to improve sanitation and user experience. The field tests will help assess and refine cultural, sanitation, and financial aspects of these community facilities.

Lawino Kagumba of ZanaAfrica in Kenya will develop and test sanitary pads that use a locally available agricultural by-product as an alternative low-cost absorbent material. This would enable low-income women and girls to have access to affordable feminine hygiene products, improving their productivity and menstrual health.

Olufunke Cofie of the International Water Management Institute in Ghana will develop and test fortified fertilizer pellets from treated human excreta for market sale. Production at large scale could enhance agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa, while also contributing to reduction in environmental health risk from untreated human waste. In Phase I Cofie tested several materials that are inexpensive and locally available as binding agents for producing robust fecal sludge pellets suitable for packaging and transportation.

This project aims to utilize ultrasound to move and settle human waste collected in a specifically designed latrine. This redesigned latrine uses less water and therefore provides a more sustainable solution to collect human waste.

Srikanth Mutnuri from BIRAC in India in collaboration with Willy Verstraete from Ghent University in Belgium, will aim to develop a financially affordable and simple-to-operate decentralized wastewater treatment system for a single household as well as for a gated community of 100 people (25 families) that will produce high quality effluent for safe disposal. The waste treatment system relies on electrochemical reactions and the production of chlorine, to manipulate the pH of the wastewater to destroy pathogens and helminthes.

This is a proof-of-concept development for using viral agents to target and kill pathogens and odor-producing bacteria in fecal waste and also develop for ways to integrate this into waste treatment systems. The potential of this project is immense as, once thoroughly tested; it will provide a completely natural alternate to managing pathogens in waste water.