Local manufacture of water testing equipment in India and Bangladesh means that over 14,000 poor villages now have water free of arsenic and other health-damaging impurities, in a linking initiative which has also boosted the respective local economies.
Arsenic and other impurities are common drinking water problems in India and Bangladesh, having a major impact on the rural population’s health through high disease levels related to contaminated water, plus negatively impacting their income with unemployment and low job security.
Wagtech, a UK design and engineering company linked with partners in Bangladesh and West Bengal to establish the local manufacture and assembly of water testing kits that will allow poor communities to carry out their own regular testing and monitor impurities in their water supply.
The successful project, initially supported by the BLCF and now continuing after the grant period with the expatriate project manager replaced by a local partner staff, involves technology transfer, is profit motivated and includes the development of local manufacturing as well as training of the local labour force. The kits can also be exported to the other Southeast Asian countries facing similar regional water quality problems.
The arsenator combines laboratory accuracy with field portability and produces results within 20 minutes. It is simple and easy to operate, environmentally friendly and features a unique tri-filter arsenic trap system, which removes both excess arsine gas and hydrogen sulphide by-products. The performance of the arsenator was validated by a UNICEF report undertaken by a Delhi-based industrial research institute in 2006. Its overall performance was classified as excellent.
The project activities in Bangladesh proved more productive than those in India: many new local partners joined the project, promoting delegation at local level. The project exceeded original indicators including sales turnover, increased gross margins, partners and jobs created and a wider country spread.
By the end of the first three years of the project, the linkage test kits had produced in excess of four million tests and more than 130 people, including a large percentage of women, were employed in manufacturing test kits. Local trainers and manufacturing and marketing employees were trained in the local language and codes of employment, including ethical management were developed.
Apart from improving management and technical capabilities, modern finance systems were introduced; the market grew with over 12,500 kits sold and locally manufactured kits providing export replacement.
Skills and knowledge sharing and confidence building were accompanied by an improved training infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, and an increase in the numbers of private test operators.
Under a competitive tender in 2005, the first of several orders for arsenic safety kits were received from UNICEF and the Bangladesh department of public health and engineering. UNICEF in India has also committed to buying large numbers of the arsenator.
The company also partnered with a local NGO to extend the process of testing, developing new low cost, locally produced arsenic migration technologies, including a low cost household water purifier capable of purifying up to 90 litres of water daily. It is training NGOs in implementing water purifier technology and arsenic and bacteriological testing kits.
In addition to partnering firms learning how to think strategically about competitive advantage, and creating a model for replication in Africa, more than 14,000 poor villagers now have pure water, 2200 water purifiers have been installed in two districts – making pure water available for more families – and sufficient profits are being generated, both locally and in the UK, for the work to continue.
The linkage, technology transfer, training and education about the dangers of contaminated water in villages means that wells in India and Bangladesh are now being tested, more people have access to clean water, and new export markets for local production have opened up, in tandem with the creation of a model that can go on to be replicated in Africa.
For more information contact BLCF fund manager, the Emerging Markets Group at this address