Updated: Friday 12 May 2006

Implementation, Critical Factors and Challenges to Scale-Up of HWTS Systems.

Susan Murcott (2006)

Background Paper on Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) for the Electronic Conference May 12-22, 2006 Hosted by USAID / AED Hygiene Improvement Project (HIP). By Susan Murcott, Senior Lecturer - Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2006.

This paper explores the current status of the adoption and sustained use of household drinking water treatment and safe storage systems, the critical factors that influence adoption and sustained use and the associated challenges to scale-up. This paper is a DRAFT and will be revised based on comments and insights gained from the May 12 – 22, 2006 e-conference on HWTS. We welcome your input!

NOTE To download the appendices scroll all the way down or choose from 'related pages' to the right.

Table of Contents

Section I – Context, Definitions and Status of HWTS
1. Introduction
2. Diffusion of Social Technology Innovations and Technologies to End Poverty
3. Water Quality, “Safe” Drinking Water and Water Treatment and Storage
4. Piped and Non-Piped Water Supply and Distribution Systems, Transmission Routes for Contaminants and a Multiple Barrier Approach
5. HWTS Technologies
6. Status of Implementation of Major HWTS
• General Overview
• WHO Network Implementation Working Group Survey
• Worldwide Commercial HWTS Enterprises

Section II – Critical Factors that Influence the Adoption and Sustained Use of HWTS
7. Critical Factors
8. Commercial Factors
9. Social Marketing
10. Technical Verification
• Health Impact Studies
• Product Technical Performance (ETV Process – Sobsey)

11. Social / Behavioral
• The Nepal Consumer Perception Study
• Johns Hopkins Studies
• Swiss Technical Institute Study

12. Leadership, Education/Awareness and Social Networks
13. Financial
• Willingness to Pay
• Availability of Credit and Microfinance
• Aid, Subsidies and Incentives

14. Installation, Operation and Maintenance
• Installation
• Operation
• Maintenance

15. Manufacturing - Quality Control

Section III – Gaps, Challenges and Future Directions
16. Gaps and Challenges to Scale Up
• “Mixed Messages” – Improved Water Supply vs. HWTS
• O&M Challenge
• Cost-Effectiveness of HWTS and Effects of Subsidies
• Lack of Information on Combined Systems Implementation and Integration of HWTS into Other Programs
• Monitoring and Evaluation
o Water Quality Monitoring Tools – the Need for Simple, Low-Cost Methods
o Program Monitoring and Evaluation Tools
• Sharing Best Practices of Interventions at Scale

17. Summary and Recommendations
18. References

Appendices
1: HWTS Fact Sheets
2: Worldwide Commercial HWTS Enterprises Summary Table
3: Additional HWTS Price Tables
4: [Daily Use] Behavior-Related Variables for HWTS
5: Story: “A Tale of Two Districts in Peru”
6: Story: “The Biosand Disaster after the Hurricane Mitch Disaster”
7: Story: “Unwillingness to Pay for Household Drinking Water Treatment and Safe Storage”
8: Examples of Installation, Operation and Maintenance Instructional Materials, Labels and Brochures
9: NSF/ANSI Instruction and Information

Figures
1: Three Broad Water Quality Categories
2: Piped and Non-Piped Water Supply
3: Generalized Schematic of the Status of Implementation of Major HWTS
4: Sectors Represented by the Organizations Responding to the 2005 WHO Network Implementation Working Group Survey
5: Method of HWTS Implementation
6: Variables Determining the Rate of Adoption of an Innovation (Rogers, 2003)
7: A Predictive Model of Communication and Change

Tables
1: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme Definition of “Improved” Water Supply
2: Retail Prices of HWTS in Kenya
3: Retail Costs of HWTS in Northern Region, Ghana
4: Net Present Value of HWTS
5: Comparison of Katadyn and Hong Phuc Ceramic Candle Filter Systems
6: Acceptance Level (Variables Used by KWAHO in SODIS Program in Kibera, Kenya)