OK. Here’s your challenge: Make sure that a community of 5,000 people in rural Kenya has access to clean water and sanitation by next year. What ideas do you have to make this happen? Build a large wastewater treatment plant? Dig a well with a large borehole drill? Give people chlorine tablets to add to water from the nearby lake? This is the challenge we face every day in our work. Sometimes, the best solutions are the simplest, and we do implement a great deal of basic well and hand-pump systems, and hand-dug pipe and trench systems.
But we also develop, review and vet breakthroughs and innovations in the world of water.
| Method | Description | Our Review |
| SODIS | A simple water-purification system that uses plastic soda bottles filled with untreated water. After a day in the sun, the water becomes drinkable as it has been adequately “purified” by the sun. | Nice low-cost intervention, but difficult to implement, monitor and scale up. |
| PUR | A capsule developed by a large manufacturing company that almost instantly turns turbid (dirty) water into clean drinkable water | Good for emergencies; in testing phase for large-scale use by MWA members |
| Step-Down Filtration/Sanitation | Untreated water flows through a series of downward-declining steps, large squares; as the water declines through each step, it gets sufficiently treated for household use, although not for drinking. | Currently used in some local communities; in testing phase |
| Organic Latrines | EcoSan is the name of this type of intervention; Natural materials used to build low-cost latrines. | Has proven to be a viable sanitation intervention in poor communities |
| Safe Water System | POU Treatment w/chlorine, small-mouthed vessel for safe storage, Social Marketing for hand-washing | This is a central intervention used in multiple MWA projects |
