AED Annual Report 2008-2009

Thumbnail of India In the poor urban enclaves and rural villages of Uttar Pradesh‚ India‚ household water is often contaminated with bacteria that cause life–threatening diarrheal disease.

Treating water—through filters‚ boiling‚ or chemicals—at the point of use can reduce diarrhea by up to 50 percent‚ thus saving thousands of lives. AED’s POUZN project is making treatment devices available to low–income families through sustainable partnerships with microfinance institutions‚ NGOs‚ community organizations‚ and companies that produce water–treatment products.

When the pilot stage of POUZN began in March 2008‚ only four percent of the 12‚000 participating households disinfected their water. That number skyrocketed to 80 percent‚ or 60‚000 people‚ in just six months.

“Others who have tried to achieve these results generally limit consumers to one method of treatment‚” said Camille Saadé, POUZN project director in the AED Center for Private Sector Health Initiatives. “We offered them a choice of methods and increased the chance that they would adopt and maintain a new way of treating and handling their water safely.”

The second phase of the project seeks to scale up and reach an additional 600‚000 residents in 930 poor‚ rural areas‚ and an additional 520‚000 residents of 480 impoverished urban areas in Uttar Pradesh.

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