ALMA
Each year, approximately 760,000 children under-five of age die from diarrheal diseases, a leading cause of which is unsafe drinking water, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, where only 24% of the population has access to safe drinking water. Chad is particularly afflicted, as less than 1 in 2 children have access to safe drinking water. Contaminated water usage leads to increased vulnerability to water-borne diseases including diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid. In 2018, Chad had the highest rate of diarrhea mortality (499 deaths per 100,000) among children under-five years of age globally.
While diarrhea is the most widely known disease linked to contaminated water, the lack of access to safe and clean water affects communities in the long term, as many studies have shown that people without clean water were at risk of decreased school attendance, missed workdays, malnutrition, and poverty. Additionally, girls and women are further affected, and their education suffers as they bear the imbalanced burdens of domestic labor. This exacerbates the inequality between men and women.
Therefore, by providing clean and safe drinking to remote populations, we can end extreme poverty, increase shared prosperity, and promote sustainable development throughout the world.
ALMA has designed a two-pronged solution, informed by previous research, which provides service delivery with an on-going supply of chlorine (that includes solar motorized pumps), and engagement with community wash officers (CWOs).
On-going service delivery: our operating model that puts CWOs at the center of our activities.
- CWOs in villages notify the call center whenever the stock of chlorine is low to avoid shortages (which can negatively impact the uptake of chlorinated water);
- Call center operators contact the warehouse closest to the village in need so that a motobiker can deliver the requested products directly;
- The call center confirms the delivery with CWOs, confirming a set delivery window.
For the technology piece, we have partnered with a local Chadian research center, and developed a system of motorized pumps that draw and store water in a tank connected to collective taps. A valve in the tank uses an automated system to deliver the right amount of chlorine in the tank as the water is piped to collective taps. This technology is environmentally friendly and can be used in remote communities, as the system runs on electricity generated through solar panels.
This technology operates in the context of collaborative community-wide involvement, which is essential to the continued success of ALMA's intervention. This is why we are closely working with CWOs in each village. As mentioned above, CWOs are vital to tracking chlorine shortage and promoting behavior change. The integrated mobile health application (SIM app) allows our CWOs to collect data on key outcomes, including reliability (% functional water pumps) and health assessments (cases of water-borne diseases). This entire information is stored into a database that can be visualized in real-time to improve performance, outcomes, and resource allocation to the effected population.
We believe that the newly developed pump technology and data monitoring system can improve the population's health, especially childhood mortality.
As diarrhea mortality is a serious health system issue in numerous low- and middle-income countries, we are proposing a complex health innovation. Our intervention has an equity impact, which we can be categorized in three levels:
- The solution is for one of the poorest countries in the world.
- At country level, huge inequities exist, and the individuals affected by water-borne diseases.
- Through geo-mapping and use of digital data and solutions, ALMA will focus on the poorest communities in rural areas through highly targeted interventions.
Providing clean and safe drinking water is an effective way to create stronger and resilient communities. As this issue impacts all parts of society in Chad, we believe our innovation will have a positive impact across the country, and in Africa.
Our team includes two co-founders, including Laetitia Walendom and Esias Bedingar who are both native of Chad. Growing up in many African countries throughout our childhood gives us three significant advantages:
- Cultural and geographic fluency – as a team largely composed of native Chadians, we have ready access to overlooked local expertise and institutional knowledge. These include community leaders in individual locales as well as professional experts in public health and infrastructure. As ALMA’s success depends in large part on its thorough adoption by local communities, our cultural and linguistic familiarity will allow us to craft and more readily cultivate a sense of ownership among local partners and target communities.
- Network and resource access – professional credentials allow us to engage with providers and domain experts on both sides of the Atlantic. As urban development and public health professionals working between the United States and West/Central Africa, our networks will enable us to more readily source domain expertise, staff, and funding for ALMA’s success.
- Lean operations – massive decentralized interventions have unsurprisingly had varied degrees of success in the Chadian context. Piecemeal, incremental WASH interventions tested in other African regions can prove successful when applied to the Chadian context. Additionally, with a recent influx of infrastructure funding, we can boast a first movers advantage by anticipating a field that’s more receptive to relatively new players. With relatively limited corporate and bureaucratic constraints, ALMA can concentrate on the logistical and community needs in order to reach all corners of the nation.
- Build fundamental, resilient, and people-centered health infrastructure that makes essential services, equipment, and medicines more accessible and affordable for communities that are currently underserved;
- Prototype
We are applying to Solve to have access to mentorship, coaching, strategic advice, and technical assistance as we are building our digital technology.
- Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design, data analysis, etc.)
PhD student in Health Systems