In the course of his research on improved and low-cost water filtration, PIND’s WASH Coordinator Timi Kiakubu happened upon a research paper by Ebele Erhuanga from the Industrial Design Department of Federal University of Technology at Akure, Ondo State, on water filtration using ceramic water filters. Erhuanga has been working with UNICEF and PIND on the market research and design of the clay filters and hopes to improve the chances of adoption of the clay filters by ensuring the design of the filters are responsive to local needs.

“We broke the research down into different phases: first, for the factories, we want to find out what successes and challenges have been, and learn what they have done right to produce a good quality product. Second, we are going to have a market system analysis to see what the market is like for both the filters and to see what factors will affect their entrance into the market. We also want to see what prices people will buy these filters. Previous studies have shown that design plays a role in people accepting a product, so we are going to be pulling in feedback from a social study on how people in a community see the filters and how functional they are.”

2016 saw the beginning of the operational research for the clay water filters, and more work will be done in the coming year to launch the filters in the market and getting clean water to more households.

Culled from PIND 2016 Annual Report http://pindfoundation.org/reports/