Using market forces to fulfill a universal need

Safe water is scarce in the slums of the Indian city of Chennai. Crowded even by slum standards, almost one-quarter of the city’s four million people live here. Many came to the city looking for work. Many others arrived here after their communities were devastated by the 2004 tsunami. All are poor, dwelling mostly in dilapidated, one-room structures pitched too close together and fit only for temporary shelter. Garbage and sewage pile up and contaminate the water supply. Diarrhea-causing microbes and malaria-spreading mosquitoes flourish.

One mother, after watching her children suffer through bout after bout of debilitating illness, borrowed money so she could buy a water-treatment device that would give them essential clean water. The cost of the device? US$35, more than her family makes in a month.

More than a month’s income is too high a price to make water treatment possible for households in Chennai and the rest of the developing world. But what if there were cheaper options? Would more families find the means to buy them? Enough to sustain a market for such products—and spur the development of new ones?

Beginning in India, PATH is looking for workable solutions that will give families the clean water they need to live and give businesses a reason to invest in safe water in the developing world.

What’s involved

First we’ll conduct research on existing technologies to treat and store water in homes: filters, chemical and ultraviolet treatments, heat disinfection. What products are available? What do they cost? Who is using them, and how are they working? Our engineers will identify and test a range of devices. We’ll also need to gain a thorough understanding of consumer willingness to buy safe water products.

Next we’ll assess the capacity of manufacturers and distributors within the market. Are there opportunities to scale up efforts—to manufacture more systems and to sell them for less? After we establish manufacturing and distribution mechanisms for the products and ensure that they can be priced affordably, we’ll help market them to consumers.

India as a starting point

We’ll start in India, where the Chennai mother is one of more than a billion people, many of whom live daily with unsafe water. The World Bank estimates that 21 percent of disease in the country is related to unsafe water. According to the World Health Organization, in 1999, diarrhea killed at least one person every minute in India.

In addition to a great need, India has a robust consumer economy and established industrial base, ready to take up new solutions and carry them to the communities where they can do the most good. PATH will learn much in the Indian market—and apply what we learn to other countries.

To market

This market approach has worked with other household goods, such as soap products in India, latrines in Bangladesh, and cook stoves in Rwanda. We’re hopeful that it will work again—and help fulfill the universal need for safe water.

Photo: PATH/Glenn Austin.