Hlaing Thar Yar Survey
For our new project, R.O machine project, I did the survey in Hlaing
Thar Yar after surveying Kyote Gone area and Mingalardon area. In
order to choose the suitable place to set up, surveying and situation
analysis is very important. In Hlaing Thar yar, they have many sources
for water. Tube well, pond water, government tap water, and purified
water. But the availability of clean water is also depending on their
income. They can have an access to drinking water, which they can
afford after using money for food. Even one house is close to another;
they drink water from the different source. There are three kinds of
drinking water source that they use in that area. Some use pond water
for drinking water by storing the pond water overnight. Some bought
government tap water for drinking from the delivery person with
pushcart. Few of the households can afford to the purified water,
which is 300 kyats per 20 litres water bottles. But these kinds of
drinking water source could not be relied all the year. Like in the
pond water, the heat took out water from the pond and it is hard to
get water. The government tap water delivery persons do not come
around regularly. The purified water bottles were out of stock in the
vendor shop sometimes. So the availability of drinking water in that
area is quite a problem. The tube well water can be used only for the
laundry, and taking a bath. People around in that area said it is not
suitable to use tube well water for cooking because the turbidity of
tube well water is a big problem to use. Even for the laundry, they
cannot wash white clothes with the tube well, because white colored
clothes turn to yellow colored clothes.

Reported by
Saw Yo Har

From a glass for drinking, to a metal bowl for washing ingredients, the objects that this household uses to interact with their water are all stored upon the permeable straw screen, which serves dual purposes as both a (semi-effective) cover for the water and a storage space that can be easily moved aside to access the water without having to remove the entire cover.

Follow up in Kyote Gone Area
I went to speak with Ceramic Water Filter owners in Kyote Gone
Quarter for follow up concerning our new R.O project. There was much
feedback and many new insights. Among those I spoke with, this owner
was quite interesting. He first found out about our filters from our
Water ware representative, Ma Ni Ni Win. They used to drinks water
straight from the tap and just filtered the water with the cloth
filters. He bought a Zawgyi Ceramic Water Filter because he heard from
Ma Ni Ni Win that it is good for children’s health. He bought the
filter as a birthday present for his granddaughter and now the filter
provides the whole household with drinking water. He said that he
places a piece of cloth over the filter as a dust cover, and the cloth
also serves to filter the visible particles in the water whenever the
unit is filled. They said they had to buy the cloth filters again and
used it. He said it will be more convenient for them to put a piece of
cloth on the filter.

They defined clean water as being clear in appearance, free from
germs, and having no color or tint. Although they use our Zawgyi
filter for their drinking water, they still prefer to use non-filtered
water for cooking and boiling to make tea. They store water for
cooking and for tea-preparation in the large plastic container.
They do not use purified water because they are uncertain about the
quality of the purified water available. They heard some rumors about
the purified water not being clean enough and they like the Zawgyi
filter because they can see with their own eyes that the water is
dripping from the filter unit and is crystal clear after passing
through the clay of the filter.
With the purchase of their new Zawgyi clay filter system, they found
new uses for their old water-related things. They now use the old clay
water storage pot to contain water that they will boil, like a cooking
pot. They also store water that they will pour into the Zawgyi filter
inside of the old “Cool” brand 20-liter bottles. Their reason for
storing this water in buckets instead of pouring it in directly to the
filter unit is because water is strictly rationed throughout the Kyote
Gone neighborhood, and they need to access water while they can so
that they may pour it into filter later on.
Through this interview, we could see the satisfaction of the customer
with our Zawgyi filter. We were also need to concern about the
feedback because the customer usually wants things which are
convenient to use for them.

Placed on a sidewalk next to a busy road, these 20-liter containers are exposed to a great deal of dust, exhaust, grit, and grime that fills the air around it. The precaution taken by the owner/donor of this pair of containers has been to wrap their bodies in plastic. This solution can only protect so much, though, and in the end functions mainly to keep dust off of the bits that thirsty pedestrians don't usually interact with anyways. Also, by being displayed in these transparent plastic bottles out in open sunlight, the warm temperature of the water surely must not be as appetizing to passerby as if the water had come from the clay "December pots" - the default sidewalk water storage solution.

If there were somehow a kind of adaptor made to fit on top of a 20-liter bottle that could cover the cup, and a means of protecting the spigot then better dust protection would be possible (perhaps including the spigot in the "plastic mummification" process while leaving it still "grab-able" and attaching a short length of hose to function as a water outlet). What I wish I had asked was why the owner decided to place two water containers outside, instead of just displaying one and then leaving an unopened one for when the first is depleted.

The U.S Embassy, Rangoon celebrates the 2nd Annual Health Fair on 27
January 2012. The purpose of Health fair is to increase health
awareness to their over three hundred employees, through education and
prevention.

This is the second time Thirst-Aid participated in the health fair.
We, Ma Toe, NyeinNyein ,Yohar and me, attended. We provided a
presentation on Household Water Treatment System. We showed our
Ceramic Water Filter and explained how it is working. We already
delivered our comic books about the prevention of diarrhea and
waterborne diseases and we also gave out CD’s of our popular Zawgyi
animated cartoon. This year we also printed out new episodes of comic
books and another episode of our Zawgyi animated cartoon. Most of the
people loved comic books and Zawgyi cartoon CD’s for their children.
This increased Thirst-Aid’s brand recognition.

There were about 12 booths in the fair. Some were from hospitals,
health care providers, and NGO’s like Save the Children, PSI and
Thirst-Aid. The embassy gave animal logo stamps to every booth. We,
Thirst-Aid, got the “Puma” logo stamp. Every visitor received a coupon
at the entrance and it would be stamped if they visited to one booth.
After they had visited all of the booths, had a coupon full of stamps
which they could exchange for presents. That's a way to make people
visit every booth! We could also play bingo at the fair. They made the
bingo cards with health care-related pictures. If you wonat bingo, you
would get a present like toothpaste or sanitizing hand-gel.

Cameras were not allowed to inside the embassy,but we do have some
photos which were taken by an embassy member. Unfortunately, I was not
included in any photos :-( . The embassy provided hamburgers and
French fries for lunch. They also held a raffle for all of the
participants in the fair. The Health fair finished at 2:00 PM,and one
could say it was definitely a success. We hope to participate in the
3rd Annual Health Fair in next year.

For those who can afford it, a critical piece of equipment in many
rainwater collection solution is a 50-gallon drum – either plastic or
metal. At around 20,000 kyat (~ US $25) for a good-condition iron
drum, and 50,000 kyat (US $62 – possibly more expensive because they
must be imported instead of repurposed like a container already in the
country), the investment is significant. Left open at the top to
collect water and allow easy access, it is also an open invitation to
contamination.

50-gallon drums’ flexibility and usefulness in many other applications
make them an important asset that must be both carefully maintained
and protected from theft (note the bicycle chain that secures the blue
plastic barrel to the adjacent post). Besides use as a stationary
storage device, 50-gallon drums also play a key role in many
water-delivery carts here in Myanmar as a more reliable substitute to
the traditional solution of wooden barrels.

Two examples of water cart models. Though both have the same basic
function of selling water, their configuration and capacity are
different based upon their customers and neighborhoods. What does the
design tell you about the assumptions and constraints of each water
vendor? The pink model filled with uniform jerrycans is in a Yangon
suburb, while the blue-barrel model is in a mid-size city in the
middle of the country.

In a recent UNHABITAT survey on Myanmar people's perceptions and
attitudes towards water, nearly 17% answered that being cool in
temperature was a key characteristic of water being "clean" or safe to
drink. Apart from concepts about cleanliness, many people simply
prefer to drink cool water when they are in their homes. This is most
likely due to so many people having been brought up with clay water
storage pots in their home, which naturally cool the water down.

Considering how common boiling water is here in Myanmar (59% of
respondents in the same survey claimed to boil their water before
consumption), it would appear that the means of cleaning water is at
odds with how people generally prefer to drink their water. This in
turn leads to some interesting systems for lowering the temperature of
water before consumption.

One user, after boiling water, places it into the largest lower pot,
allowing it to begin cooling. After boiling a second potful of water,
he takes the cooled water and pours it into the middle and upper pots,
pouring the just-boiled water into the lower pot once again. He
believes this allows the water to cool more quickly, and the coolest
water is stored on top where it can be more easily accessed. This user
also believes traditional clay containers (also known as December
pots) are not as effective at cleanly storing water as these metal
containers, and that pouring boiling water into a clay pot could would
damage it.

I noticed another water-cooling system at one of our customers’ house.
One of our filter units was placed on one side of the room, adjacent
to the kitchen and cooking area. In the opposite corner, adjacent to
the entryway and sitting/reception area, was a traditional clay water
pot/December pot. After asking some questions about how and when they
use each water storage method, they described their system for cooling
their drinking water: Pour water into the 10-liter Zawgyi filter unit
and wait for it to filter through. Once water had finished flowing
through the filter unit and into the storage container, they take
their clay water pot down from its perch in the corner, place it below
the water filter, and fill it with the just-filtered water from the
Zawgyi filter before replacing it on its stand near the entryway. The
purpose of this is to keep the water cooled in the clay pot, because
if it were left in the transparent plastic 10-liter storage container
of our Zawgyi filter unit it would remain warm.

These are just two examples of the many ways households find to cool
their water as they begin to move away from storing their water in
traditional clay water pots. If we hope to create the best-designed
and most appropriate water cleaning solution for the masses, usability
issues such as keeping water at the customer's desired are just as
important as a product's affordability.