Meeting Notes

Meeting Minutes!

2009.02.27 - Team Meeting

Present: Tylor, Becca, Chris, Christine, Jim, Amrita

Action Items:

• Tylor and Christine will work on the problem statement and team contract
• Becca and Chris will work on design specs
• EVERYONE post on wiki by some reasonable time Sunday (10 pm?) , so people have time to edit/add Talking with Amrita* What does existing product look like?
  • Container of plastic material with valve
  • Valve is cup with handle and it turns
• Manufacturing?
  • Valve is manufactured in the US
    • Hard to find valve that doesn't leak, doses precisely, and is robust
    • Large part of the total cost ($15-$18)
  • Housing
    • Cement base and housing with roof
    • Metal stand is quite pricey
    • Not so much concerned about theft now, but more sturdiness
  • Body
    • Made in Kenya
  • Chlorine
    • Made in Nairobi.
    • Can do it locally but the quality control is hard.
• Making it VERY VERY EASY TO USE is important
• Pricing
  • Right now it is free
  • Standard way to distribute chlorine is in little bottles à takeup w/o dispenser is about 5%
  • If you deliver for free, take up is high (
  • If you give people a coupon for 50%, take-up is less than 10%
  • à Both price and ease of use are very important barriers
  • Cost recovery would probably be through community collection (like a water committee, or local government, schools)
• Any jobs resulting?
  • There would have to be someone to be a refiller... how much income it would generate is still undecided
• How often will it have to be refilled?
  • Not more than once every 2-3 weeks, more likely once every month
  • That's for about 200 people... which is about 30-40 compounds (5 or so people per compound)
• Containers
  • Most people use 20 L jerry cans... some use 10, some use 5 (this is more than 90% of the containers).
  • But older people and young kids use smaller jerry cans
  • In India, people use smaller containers...
• Recontamination?
  • That's exactly why chlorine was used
  • Decay of residual chlorine is 24 hours, but people tend to keep their water for 72 hours
• What's limiting how much Cl is taste, not dosing
  • Taste effects kick in 1.5-2 mg/L
• What about getting Cl at this concentration into your eyes?
  • CDC (Danielle) says it's not a problem but we're not sure
• Can play with the dosing...
  • Increasing conc. decreases storage and transportation costs (transportation is the more important factor)
    • Expense in transportation is the last mile (to rural areas)
  • At this concentration it lasts for about 18 months
  • The bigger constraint seems to be having a place to store it at the end point
• How does chlorine get there?
  • Made in Nairobi at 1.25% concentration and transported to Kenya
• Do you recommend to the users that they use certain container size?
  • No
  • It's important but it's not a problem
    • Going from earthenware pots to plastic is hard
    • It's not an easy behavior change to change storage habits
  • In plastic containers Cl decays slower
• After Cl do they have to filter it?
  • No they don't - where they are working in Kenya the water is clear
  • BUT it would be useful to make it more widely usable (in turbid water?)
• Where?
  • Western Province
  • Really rural, people are really disperse
• What is the goal now?
  • The priority is scaling up!
  • How best to distribute it, where?
  • Pilot in different countries à Rwanda, Malawi, India
  • "We have a product that works... it would be nice to get the cost down..."
• The design -  what is wanted?
  • It can be a lot cheaper
  • Issues that clever design could get around
    • How do we make sure ppl use the Cl in the right way?
    • How do we make sure the refillers aren't cheating... tampering?
      • Siphoning off to use for bleach?
      • Suddenly the distributer decides to dilute the bleach?
    • This hasn't been a problem but it could be... if distribution model changes
      • Slums and small towns (urban and peri-urban areas)
      • Piloting the dispensers with them... they like it.  They're willing to pay for it.
      • Don't really need a stand
  • Any complaints from users?
    • No.  when is it coming to the town?
  • WANT TO KEEP AS EASY TO USE AS POSSIBLE
    • Elevated...
  • Flexibility in dosing is important... maybe not for now, but in the future
    • In W. Kenya, the container sizes are nice multiples... but not everywhere
  • The refill container is expensive...
    • Can look into cheaper?  Reusable?
• Distribution models
  • Currently distributed by IPA... IPA delivers the Cl.  Other models were looked at, like selling at half price.
  • Retailers sell at smaller containers and therefore higher prices
• Local
  • Nairobi - has a lot of stuff
  • Kisumu (closest large town)
  • Busia (small)
• Jim's summary:
  • Can't assume common carrying vessel, so people are either underdosing or properly dosing or overdosing
  • Standard in retail stores - 1.25 L. à expensive
  • Theft doesn't seem to be a concern
    • "Nobody has talked about attempts at thefts"
  • How many dispensers have been distributed?
    • 40, for months
  • Is tampering a big enough issue?
    • There is no evidence that it's a big concern
    • "All our instincts is that it will be a big concern as soon as Cl is being charged for"
    • So... this might be a problem if this is made into a microfinance
  • Encourage people to go every 24 hours.
  • Safety of splashing?
    • They haven't had any problems
• Required time for chlorination
  • 20-30 minutes
• Degradation?
  • Haven't had problems with degradation (help from CDC)
• In increasing concentration (smaller volumes of dispensing), harder to dose accurately
• Container
  • It's opaque
  • Is it airtight?
    • Not sure...
• Transportation Costs:
  • The further down the transportation chain, the more expensive.
• How often does the refiller check if it needs to be refilled?
  • Not sure... like once a week maybe?
• How do we deal with different sizes of populations using this?
  • Maybe design for extra so that there is residual when the refiller comes around
• Turbidity
  • Usually deal with this by adding 2x the normal dosage of chlorine
  • CDC estimate is that only 15% of water sources worldwide are so turbid that they can't be dealt with like this.
• Jim: list a series of possible attributes and prioritize
  • Amrita is concerned about effectiveness
    • Applicable in multiple contexts (so no need to redesign)
  • Other people say COST is most important
  • Priorities: (if you had $10... how much would go to each)

                                (nothing filled in means not a concern)  Teamwork Modules* Article:

• • Stages are true
  • Forming, Storming...
• When a team builds trust
  • Don't attack the person, just the idea
  • Think that everyone wants to do well, but it's just about organizing so that they can contribute
  • Open door policy - that's why mentors are here
• Jim says to front-load
• Open communication is CRITICAL
• Being really honest about what you can handle and following through
• How do we divide responsibilities?
• How do you go on if there's not 100% consensus
• How to get feedback
• Jim suggests series of bullets
  • Meetings will be ____
  • Minutes
  • Assignments
  • General principles
• Frequent checkups to see how everyone's doing
• CHECKING EMAIL IS IMPORTANT à bold emails and make summaries and ACTION ITEMS
• Meeting minutes:
  • Stick action items in text of email