Session with students at IIT
December 10.
Today we had a nice discusion session with around 7 Industrial Design students from IIT.
We talked with them about drinking water situation in India, how access to safe water is granted, differences between urban and rural India, and finally presented our concept.
It was a very productive talk that provide us some new insights as well as confirmed some of our assumptions. Some of the interesting issues are:
- Confirmation of a water problem in India. Drinking water from the tap is not safe, they all use some sort of purification system, even at university
- In rural areas activities for water purification are not based on real knowledge about the problem, but based on tradition or habits, pased on generation after generation. Mainly focused on filtering suspended particles with cloth.
- Existing water purification systems are not fitting the context. They should be self-sustainable, with not parts to be replaced (no repeating costs)
- Water awerness is a big part of their lifes. Different solutions have been applied to water storage, mainly in the cities with communal water tanks
- During the raining season, free clorine drops are provided by goverment, in the rural areas, for people to purify water
- People living in rural areas are very creative in finding solutions for their problems with the materials and resources they have available
- Cities, like Mumbai, have higher priority for water availability than the sub-rural areas sourrinding them
- Solar cooker does not fit the context, it is not usefull for the way Indian people cook
- There is not enough placement at medical school, so students go abroad
Discussion with Prof. Bapat from IIT
December 11
We had a very interesting talk with a professor at the Industrial Design Center of the IIT. He is specialized in material impact, design methodology and creativity innovation. Some of the topics we discussed were general water issues, health care, a small introduction to our product and water purification.
The professor said that “sustainability is old wine for us (Indian people)”, referring to the culture of reuse of products and materials, giving them a second life. This is also incorporated in current Industrial Design education.
Lots of self sustainable villages can still be found in the rural interior areas, but are becoming less and less.
He also added that solar cookers are an interesting product but not for Indian cousine, as it doesn’t fit their cooking rituals; so it might be interesting to use them for another purpose.
Some facts he mentioned:
- Water level is getting lower, so there a lot of local initiatives for alternatives to solve the problem
- Because population is immense all problem are scaled up and are difficult to resolve
- In rural areas people would rather walk for 5km than pay for water
As a last issue the professor mentioned that it will always come down to the price of the product to make it interesting for people.
Prof. Bapat in his office
