Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 21.1
TWI began by embedding personnel into communities that required water puriication for improved health.
many iterations, conversations, and visitations, TWI determined that the central valley of
Mexico had severe water problems, and an archetype municipality was chosen for deploy-
ing the TWI BoP team. A local home was rented, which would act as a base for the BoP
protocol and community education as well as a laboratory for ield testing potential prod-
ucts (Figure 21.1).
The TWI team was careful to interact with the community and not introduce precon-
ceived ideas about what was potentially in the water, what technical solutions might be
available, and how such a solution could be brought to that market. After building trust, it
became clear that the women in the community cared deeply about family health in gen-
eral, and healthy water was an important element of this concern. Local businesses would
use local water, sometimes from the tap, to create fruit-based drinks that they sell locally
as well. To obtain clean water, the consumer generally walked (sometimes long distances)
to local water puriication dealers that appeared to use more centralized RO systems to ill
large “garrafones” or plastic bottles of water. These garrafones contain 5 gallons of water
and besides the cost, the people had to carry the garrafones weighing between 40 and
50 pounds inconvenient distances to their homes. Closer examination showed that often,
the consumer would resort to using tap water, often illing the garrafones, particularly
later in the week after payday. We also learned that the tap water “tasted funny,” and the
consumer did not trust the puriication of the water by the local municipality. The fami-
lies in these communities also purchase a lot of soda. These beverages are safe; however,
the mothers are aware of the negative consequences of the high sugar content on health,
especially obesity. Obesity and its consequences are not surprisingly the most prevalent
cause of death.
21.3.2 Technology
In parallel to the market application reinement and the development of appropriate busi-
ness models, TWI began to narrow its technology choices. After all, even though the local
community had perceptions of water problems, they did not know the exact technical
