Fostering Best Practice: Tool Kit For Safe Water Stations Now Available
Safe Water Network has developed an instructional tool kit called Tools for Safe Water Stations that includes a series of standardized training modules and materials for the design, construction and operation of a Safe Water Station. Funded by the PepsiCo Foundation, the kit also includes assessment tools to determine the feasibility and readiness of a village and the viability of water sources. This is the first comprehensive set of manuals for locally owned and managed water purification kiosks available to organizations world-wide.
The methods, approaches and techniques included in Tools for Safe Water Stations were developed, tested and refined in Safe Water Network’s field initiatives based in Ghana and India. With 33 systems in operation, we currently provide affordable safe drinking water to over two hundred thousand people.
The Tool Kits are part of Safe Water Network’s program to standardize and package our field initiatives in useful ways for our partners to easily replicate. A version is now available for other organizations seeking to launch locally owned and operated water kiosks. We also welcome partnerships with those groups on-the-ground, helping rural communities.
“Using the Tool Kit ensures that our operators have the proper guidance and materials to address all of the key issues they face out in the field,” says Charles Nimako, head of Safe Water Network’s African Initiatives. “It also standardizes our process to ensure that we efficiently and consistently deliver safe water in multiple locations and countries.”
“These Modules prepare an organization with what it needs to work with communities,” adds Ravi Sewak, head of India Operations for Safe Water Network.
Tools for Safe Water Stations was supported by a generous grant from The PepsiCo Foundation. The Foundation, which has a goal to deliver access to safe water to communities in need, has supported Safe Water Network since its inception in 2006. “We are proud to continue working with Safe Water Network on this new Tool Kit project,” said Sue Tsokris, vice president, PepsiCo Foundation; vice president, PepsiCo Global Citizenship & Sustainability. “The early results have been impressive and we think by working together the lessons learned from Safe Water Network’s field initiatives can help other, less experienced organizations, is a great way to increase our collective impact.”
In the next phase of development, Tools for Safe Water Stations will be adapted for our Tablet platform, developed with Merck & Co and Dialogue Factory, to address the need to communicate the benefits of safe water through consistent, cost-effective messaging. A tablet application of Tools for Safe Water Stations will address further training support functions for local operators and field personnel, including instructional videos, interactive tools and assessments to gauge both participant progress and the effectiveness of instruction.