Innovating Water
A sustainable community-based UV-solar water treatment system with educational programs in schools and health facilities in Kenya
Summary
Innovating Water is a registered NPO that provides sustainable community-based UV-solar water treatment systems along with educational programs in schools and health facilities in Kenya.
My Role
As the Co-Founder and Design Director, I led and formed the team, working through the end-to-end design process, from research, design, development, and delivery since 2013. One of my recent contributions was the website redesign in 2015.
What I did
Service Design
Business & Concept Development
Industrial & System Design
User-Centered Research
Art Direction & Visual Design
UX & UI
Website Design & Development
The Outcome
The schoolchildren are given safe clean drinking water treated by UV system every day; Also, they are taught the merit of clean water, and basic engineering education about the UV system and renewable energy like solar power.
01
Introduction — Research, Collaboration, and Our Approach
The Problem: “How might we enable the people of Kenya to access clean, affordable, drinkable water considering the significant impacts on the health and wellbeing of the community?”
🌍 Research & Insights
What is the problem with water in Kenya? The lack of water? But actually, it does rain quite a bit with regular rainfall throughout the year. The real problem is the rainwater is not captured or its stored in dirty tanks and therefore not drinkable.
Moreover, too many people are not aware of health issues regarding water, and the level of infection from waterborne viruses remains high. With our solid research and field prototypes, Innovating Water sets out to change this.
🤓 Our Approach
Innovating water is developed and delivered through the co-creation of Kenyan charities, engineers, doctors, and teachers.
We source all the equipment from local business firms and test the safety of water with Kenyan public health unit.
We produce the educational materials like brochures with schoolchildren’s mothers, the great Kenyan women who look after their family.
02
Business & Marketing
With my user-centered research methodologies, industrial design experience, hands-on web design & development skills, I was a valuable and critical member at every business competition and investment meetings. We won in £10,000 prizes at the Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design (IE&D) Business Plan Competition held at Imperial College Business School along with the additional funding £10,000 from UK NPOs (press found HERE).
That's when we earned the first bucket of gold, which I was at the age of 25. I learned that good design spread information and stories, and make things happen.
03
Solution
Currently, there are 3 running systems in Kenya, and solar power can be used to pump underground water, store vaccines, and even generate income for the community.
Innovating Water is not just about engaging and empowering local families and communities, but also giving opportunity of income-generating initiatives. It’s not only to design a solution for global water crisis but also to design future solution makers like engineers.
Little children with a big impact.
I worked as the Co-Founder and Design Director of Innovating Water from 2013 to 2016, going through all the ideation, competition and investment, and team formation phases, across countries and continents. It's been an extraordinary learning experience. I'm more than grateful that I had the honor to listen to and learn from my users and colleagues from a diverse background, and then co-create the solution altogether. My key learning is — The best results are always about collaboration.