Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The lack of fresh and clean water today causes severe problems, mostly in developing countries. Waterborne diseases like typhoid, cholera, amoebic dysentery and diarrhea create health problems and deaths among people. There is a need for low cost interventions like household-based water treatment and safe storage (HWTS). Solvatten AB is a Swedish company based in Stockholm. Their product, Solvatten, is a household water treatment unit that can treat water containing viruses, parasites and bacteria. The product does not need any chemicals or energy-sources such as charcoal or firewood, it only needs the sun.

The focus of this study is to distinguish the specific effects Solvatten have on the people using it in the Bungoma district in western Kenya. This can be done by using a framework named Social Return on Investment (SROI) which has its origins from Impact Assessment (IA) and social Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). The social added value from Solvatten AB can be calculated by conducting an evaluative SROI analysis. This will result in a ratio that can be used by Solvatten AB for fundraisings, scholarships and other recourses. Data will be collected by interviewing a target group in the Bungoma district. It will be one to one interviews and a questionnaire will be used. The target group consists of buyers of the unit from 2010. The SROI ratio has been calculated to 1: 26 KES. The calculations are based on 9 different outcomes that all are presumed to last five years.

Solvatten is without any doubts a great invention and there is a constant need for HWTS solutions in developing countries where water is a scarcity. Solvatten is right in time, easy to use and small children can carry it. The problem is that the organization around Solvatten in the Bungoma district needs to be improved and better structured, the product itself works fine as it is today.