Becca Smith

Goals

• Understand existing water collection, transport, storage and treatment behavior

• Identify challenges to procuring clean and safe water

• Understand the use of the packH2O water transportation/storage product in Kenya

• Test the co-design research method

Outcomes

• Research resulted in a deeper understanding of existing water transport, storage, and treatment behaviors in the communities visited in Kenya. Unmet needs for water collection and storage in general, and for drinking water specifically (including treatment), were identified. 

• Increased household water storage capacity was found to be a particularly underemphasized but impactful need, while other observed opportunities were to reduce the time, energy and cost for collecting water and to provide a convenient and hygienic water dispensing solution. These findings encouraged future work to develop new transport, storage or dispensing solutions, or to explore appropriate market strategies for existing storage containers. 

• The packH2O water backpack was found to have greater value for water storage and dispensing than for transport. Given the transport behavior described and observed, alternative transport solutions, or increased storage capacity for rainwater, were suggested.

Role

Project manager; Lead researcher
Collaborators: Benji Moncivaiz, Kendra Leith, Pauline Kibaru, Anne Wamagunda, Njeri Kara

location

MIT D-Lab; Nairobi, Kenya

timeframe

2013-2014

process

The research study was planned in collaboration with host organization Partners for Care (PfC) and Greif/packH2O. In January and February 2014, in the Machakos, Limuru and Marurui areas outside of Nairobi, Kenya, our six-person research team conducted 69 semi-structured interviews, five focus groups and two co-design sessions, and observation and informal conversation with water collectors and other stakeholders. In focus groups, participants were able to interact with a variety of technologies for water transport, storage and dispensing, both familiar and unfamiliar, to discuss preferences in features. Co-design sessions, inspired by creative capacity building workshops, were a half-day long and featured activities to practice the design process and an opportunity to build a prototype and explain design decisions. 

Interview and focus group transcriptions were analyzed through content analysis (using NVivo) to reveal new insights and needs; focus groups and co-design sessions drew out design requirements and important features for potential solutions. Findings were shared with PfC, Greif/packH2O, and a wider audience through a D-Brief (linked below).