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Dear All,

My name is Robert Ainslie and I am working on a USAID safe water program in Indonesia. We are working through a commercial model to produce, and distribute the safe water product called Air RahMat. The actual product just got to market in February of this year. It is the only product/technology that is being promoted through this program. The main competition is boiling water. In two recent surveys there was an reported 96% boiling rate among the population. As this sounds good, there are two factors on the boiling issue: 1) it is very expensive here now that the price of kerosene has tripled in the last 8 months. People report spending half of their kerosene on boiling drinking water. The second issue is that in one study we did with CDC, 96% of the source water was contaminated and 47% of the treated water was contaminated. So that is the context we are working in.

In looking at queries around what people can afford and the constraints to using HWTS, I think it’s the behaviors around treating or not treating that are key to adoption. Many of the programs in the past focused on treating water to reduce diarrhea. So the motivating factor was the improved health (less incidence of diarrhea). But in asking people where they get diarrhea form, many link it to the growth stages in kids, eating hot or cold food, eating dirt, etc. Getting it form water is usually low on the list. So that is one barrier. Next if people believe that you can prevent diarrhea through treating water, a problem you face is when they get it from another vector, say not washing your hands, or not cleaning or protecting food properly. So people may lose faith in the water treatment. Also we hear women say that they treat their water and then the kid drinks untreated water at a neighbor’s house. So why should the mother invest in treating her water. Also the fact that they have been drinking their water just fine with out treating (or treating only in dry season, or wet season). So we are faced with not only getting a technology right (one that a person likes) but also the behavior of treating water before drinking.

There needs to be emphasis on creating the norm of treating in the community, not only one or two people treating. Here in Indonesia, boiling is the norm. If you don’t boil then you use bottled water. When introducing SWS here, people always want to boil before or after treatment. It is unthinkable to drink un-boiled water. When they learn of the benefits of SWS, and tastes and hear other people’s testimonial, then they are willing to try, but it is a huge step not to boil. We even hear that people would rather not boil water because of the expense or the time it takes, but it is a behavior that is well entrenched.

I also think in the promotion of HWTS we need to think why people drink and what they like about the qualities of water, not that its safe and prevents disease. Look at any bottle water and it promotes itself because its “fresh”, it pure, its form a mountain stream. We need to but those types of aspirational qualities around water treatment. Why should you treat your water – because it makes it fresh, pure, like mountain spring water…. We are promoting Air RahMat as a cost saver and as practical.

Not sure if this goes to the sore of the questions posed, but I have been reading the exchanges and just now (last day) been able to write some. We will let you know how SWS (Air RahMat) does next year in the conference.

Regards,

Rob