Humanitarian innovation tested in the field: the example of the Orisa water purifier

Photo taken in Djibo by Sebastien Batangouna Banzouzi, WASH site manager at SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in Burkina FASO @SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL

Humanitarian action is made up of commitment and concrete responses, without which it is only words. In order to provide these responses in an efficient manner, and to meet the needs of the people being helped, innovative technical solutions play a decisive role, multiplying the time saved, the number of people assisted, and the impact of the aid. This notion of innovation is present in all areas of our work (food security, health, shelter, resilience, etc.), and of course in the technical area of WASH (water, hygiene and sanitation).

The paradigm shift sometimes consists, without revolutionizing the technical solution itself, in providing actors and beneficiaries in the field with an easy-to-use, reliable response adapted to the entire spectrum of interventions, from emergency to development, in terms of individual, family or collective access to safe drinking water. This is the idea behind the Orisa water purifier proposed by Fonto De Vivo, a company co-founded by Anthony Cailleau, a specialist in R&D, and David Monnier, a former humanitarian who has worked for 14 years in a variety of difficult areas: Liberia, Iraq, Comoros, Guinea, Afghanistan… He was able to measure the need for easy and safe means of access to water for populations impacted by security, climate or epidemic crises. The development of the Orisa purifier was done, starting in 2017, in partnership with researchers from the universities of Nantes (where Anthony Cailleau and David Monnier met, and decided to found Fonto De Vivo) and Vendée. A focus group of six French NGOs was set up to specify their needs in terms of purification and related logistics. Then a design firm in Nantes and a design office in Vendée specialized in plastics finalized the product, which started to be marketed in 2021.

In concrete terms, it is a portable and autonomous purifier, modest in size (42.5 x 17 x 12cm), weighing 2.1 kg, operating by manual pumping, intuitive, and conforming to the quality guidelines for drinking water of the WHO. The ultrafiltration is done by hollow fiber membranes through which the water passes. The purifier is adaptable to different types of containers, tanks, and treats surface water (wells, streams…).

The test bed for a tool intended for humanitarian use is its implementation in the field. In this respect, the intervention carried out by the NGO SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in Djibo, Burkina-Faso (emergency program), is significant, as for the potential of the Orisa purifier. The particular context of the town of Djibo, which is under blockade by armed groups, has transformed a critical situation into a humanitarian emergency. Even before the blockade, Djibo was affected by the increasing scarcity of water resources due to climate change, and was home to a large number of displaced persons in the Sahel. As of March 31, 2002, according to the Burkinabe government agency that registers internally displaced persons, there were 283,428 displaced persons in Djibo, out of a resident population of approximately 50,000. In January, armed groups forcibly displaced people from surrounding villages; according to OCHA, 36,532 people arrived in less than two months. The tension on drinking water resources was at its highest. Then the blockade was declared on February 17, laying mines on the access roads and attacking any vehicle or person attempting to enter or leave the town. Finally, armed groups sabotaged water points and water access infrastructure between February 21 and March 13: destruction of a generator in the Office National de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement network (which supplied 2/3 of the population), two of the three generators supplying the pumping stations serving the public network (reducing water production by 80%), and six of the twelve solar-powered adductions, put out of service by shooting at the storage tanks… According to estimates by the WASH cluster, at least 220. According to WASH Cluster estimates, at least 220,000 people have lost access to protected water sources as of 3/17/2022 due to these attacks. The population of Djibo, as Sébastien Batangouna, EHA SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL site manager in Burkina Faso, recounts, “was reduced to digging makeshift holes in the dry dam bed by hand, extracting insufficient quantities of murky water, or to drawing from a few wells or stagnant surface water. In addition, there have been numerous attacks on people collecting water. Access to water has become an issue of pressure on the population for armed groups.

Photo taken in Djibo by Sebastien Batangouna Banzouzi, WASH site manager at SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in Burkina FASO @SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL

In this context, and in a city that is only connected by helicopter to the rest of the country, the traditional WASH responses, as explained by Lise Florin, WASH Coordinator at SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in Burkina Faso, are no longer adapted: “Too dangerous to repair vandalized water points and generators, water-trucking unthinkable because water points inaccessible and fuel supply limited by the blockade, installation of bladders (flexible tanks) ruled out, because a treatment station would have been too visible and pumping difficult in makeshift holes, finally limited access to the dam for security reasons.” The only remaining solution was to treat homes and/or communities, using unconventional water sources (surface water scattered throughout the city) if necessary. A “discreet” and safe solution, therefore, which consisted in “diverting”, to use the words of Baptiste LECUYOT, Head of the EHA – Technical Expertise and Quality of Programs Unit at SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL headquarters, “the use of purifiers normally more suitable for home water treatment, by setting up collective filtration points where people would come to fetch filtered water, without having to set up larger facilities“. 242 community volunteers were recruited and trained, 64 filtration points were set up, and a mobile team of 50 volunteers was assigned to go out and educate households on hygiene and home water treatment. To date, 500 Orisa purifiers have been deployed in Djibo by SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL.

Even if the intervention of SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in Djibo is still ongoing, we can already see that, as Sebastien Batangouna points out, “The handling, use, maintenance and repair of the Orisa purifiers has been easy, as has the training of the national staff and day laborers. This simplicity was reinforced, as Lise Florin reminds us, “by the tutorials made available on the Internet by Fonto De Vivo“. Lise Florin adds that, in addition to their discretion and simplicity, “these purifiers have proven to be faster than the chemical “PUR” treatment: between 120 L/H and 180 L/H for ORISA filters, compared to 40 L/H for PUR. Also less voluminous: 4 times less 20L buckets are needed to cover the same number of beneficiaries, transportation and storage are therefore easier and less expensive. Finally, the water is of better quality for the people rescued, because it is simply chlorinated after filtration to avoid recontamination of the water during transport/storage. In Djibo, these purifiers have been used intensively, from 4 to 6 hours a day, producing about 100 L/H each, or 4 days’ worth of water for a “normal” family. Of course, pumping requires a minimum of physical strength, but given the context and the emergency, this response proved to be the most relevant, efficient and discreet. It should be mentioned, however, that non-compliance (related to a supplier) was found in Djibo, on a number of Orisa purifiers. The problem was immediately recognized by Fonto De Vivo, which implemented solutions, as the purifiers were repairable: new parts (rings) were tested and sent to Burkina Faso by express mail; and, in addition to the stock of membranes already on site, new ones are being sent to replace those that had a problem (with the remote support of Fonto De Vivo, and knowing that these membranes must be changed anyway after a certain time of use)

SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL (which had already used the Orisa purifier in Niger in a limited way in health centers), has also deployed it in Haiti in schools, and plans to use it in Mali for emergency response. Allassane Traore, EHA Dakar coordinator, emphasizes that this tool is interesting “for interventions with transhumant populations or those affected by recurrent displacements, often forgotten by humanitarian responses and particularly at risk when it comes to access to drinking water.

@MSF, Madagascar, avril 2022

In addition to SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL, other NGOs use the Orisa purifier, such as MSF in Ukraine (in health care facilities) and in Madagascar (with communities). Its very good bacterial (99.999999%, i.e. LOG 8) and viral (99.999%, i.e. LOG 5) filtration performances make it an obvious infection prevention tool, but, as Jérôme Leglise, Water and Sanitation Referent at MSF’s Operational Support Pole, points out, a specific technical innovation was of particular interest to MSF: its backwashing system using purified water, limiting contamination during washing. The medical NGO considers this purifier to be particularly suitable for exploratory missions, small bases or isolated health structures, specific communities far from urban networks, and people at risk (pregnant women, immunocompromised people, young children, measles cases) in a post-consultation or hospitalization “discharge kit”.

Finally, the CDCS (Crisis and Support Center of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs) has ordered 405 Orisa purifiers, in order to build up a contingency stock to respond to potential emergencies (natural disasters, conflicts, pandemics…).

In the end, this tool shows that, between the challenge of developing a product and the test of the field, humanitarian innovation is – also – a form of risk-taking… necessary…

Pierre Brunet

Writter and Humanitarian


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Born in 1961 in Paris to a French father and a Spanish mother, Pierre Brunet found his first vocation as a freelance journalist. In 1994, he crossed paths with humanitarian aid and volunteered in Rwanda, which had been devastated by genocide. In early 1995, he left on a humanitarian mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, then torn by civil war. There he took on the responsibilities of program coordinator in Sarajevo, then head of mission.

Upon his return to France at the end of 1996, he joined the headquarters of the French NGO SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL, for which he had gone on mission. He will be in charge of communication and fundraising, while returning to the field, as in Afghanistan in 2003, and starting to write… In 2011, while remaining involved in humanitarian work, he commits himself totally to writing, and devotes an essential part of his time to his vocation of writer.

Pierre Brunet is Vice-President of the association SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL. He has been in the field in the North-East of Syria, in the “jungle” of Calais in November 2015, and in Greece and Macedonia with migrants in April 2016.

Pierre Brunet’s novels are published by Calmann-Lévy:

  • January 2006: publication of his first novel “Barnum” by Calmann-Lévy, a story born from his humanitarian experience.
  • September 2008 : publication of his second novel ” JAB “, the story of a little Spanish orphan girl who grew up in Morocco and who will become a professional boxer as an adult.
  • March 2014: release of his third novel “Fenicia”, inspired by the life of his mother, a little Spanish orphan during the civil war, refugee in France, later an anarchist activist, seductress, who died in a psychiatric institute at 31 years old.
  • End of August 2017: release of his fourth novel “The Triangle of Uncertainty”, in which the author “returns” again, as in “Barnum” to Rwanda in 1994, to evoke the trauma of a French officer during Operation Turquoise.

In parallel to his work as a writer, Pierre Brunet works as a co-writer of synopses for television series or feature films, in partnership with various production companies. He also collaborates with various magazines by publishing columns or articles, particularly on international news.

Humanitarian impact: how to combine quality and innovation?

RCA – distribution alimentaire dans le cadre du mécanisme de réponse d’urgence – 2021

In order to best cover the needs of populations affected by a crisis, Solidarités International (SI) strives to implement qualitative and innovative solutions on a daily basis. The Department of Operations and Programs (DOAP) is the guarantor of the optimal balance between quality and programmatic innovation: reinforcing the quality of the programs implemented and developing new modalities of intervention and adapted activities are the key to the agility and sustainability of the responses implemented.

1/ What are the most effective qualitative levers for improving programs and the implementation of activities?

DOAP has several qualitative levers on which to act in order to guarantee programmatic quality.

The first qualitative lever is at the strategic level: a good humanitarian response is above all a response that solves problems that are often complex because they are multifactorial. The development of the response plan must therefore be based on a precise and holistic situational analysis, which highlights unmet needs, gaps in the existing response and the differentiated impact of the crisis on the population according to a detailed analysis of vulnerabilities. The intervention logic, inspired by the Theory of Change, makes it possible to link this situational analysis carried out at the country and/or grassroots level, and to develop a response strategy focused on solving the problem (instead of a sectoral approach). It pushes program teams to always ask the question of the rationale for the intervention and the chosen modality by answering the question: “Why are we doing what we are doing? DOAP supports teams by developing and training on these methodologies of situational analysis and theory of change.

A good response is also and above all a technical response: covering basic needs such as “eating, drinking, sheltering” in 18 crisis contexts as different as they are complex, requires the mastery of a wide range of technical skills, from the rehabilitation of wells and boreholes, drinking water analysis, physico-chemical and microbiological analysis of wastewater, waste management, drinking water and sanitation networks, vector control, infection prevention and control measures, project management assistance… for the water, sanitation and hygiene sector; market gardening, tree farming, agroecology, urban agriculture, animal health, small and large livestock breeding, fishing, fish farming, product processing and value-added techniques, value chain approach, etc. for the food security and livelihoods sector. This impressive – yet non-exhaustive – list should be complemented by skills in civil engineering, construction and rehabilitation of small and large infrastructures… The reality of sectoral technical expertise is also complementary to more cross-cutting skills such as irrigation, integrated water resources management, climate change, monitoring systems or the market-based approach and cash transfers.

Drainers in action in a latrine in a refugee camp in Bangladesh ®Solidarités International

The DOAP thus ensures the respect of technical standards through the elaboration of technical reference documents and the creation of expertise. The team brings, in addition to the daily technical support, the global vision and the consideration of the stakes related to the environment, the public health, the social cohesion and the protection in order to control the negative impact of its actions.

In order to cover as broadly as possible the range of technical expertise required to carry out its activities, and recognizing that a partnership and multi-actor approach is essential to the successful implementation of activities in the field and to the organization’s capacity building, DOAP regularly calls upon its preferred technical partners.

Finally, one of the central pillars of SI’s quality approach is based on methodological support for program management and learning. DOAP promotes a dynamic and continuous learning approach throughout the project cycle, as well as participatory, monitoring and evaluation methodologies to ensure that humanitarian action is geared towards achieving concrete changes in the lives of the populations we work for and with.

Keeping a sense of action and the perspective of the changes we are contributing to in the lives of the people at the heart of our programs is the best guarantee of the effective quality of our programs.

Sludge treatment plant, Sittwe, Myanmar. 2020 ®Marine Ricau / Solidarités International

2/ Are innovation and humanitarian action really compatible?

The crisis and fragility areas in which we work are particularly conducive to innovation because the diversity of contexts and needs as well as the constraints of implementation (security, technical, land, administrative, temporal, contextual…) that we encounter on a daily basis do not allow the implementation of a single standard solution to the complex problems encountered. Furthermore, the humanitarian imperative to respond to vital needs and to facilitate access to basic services and fundamental rights for the most vulnerable populations affected by crises, leads us to think outside the box and always seek more integrated, more adapted and more sustainable responses.

Thus, DOAP claims the role of internal coordinator of the research and innovation approach as a full-fledged lever of the quality approach: from the identification of innovative solutions emerging both from headquarters and from the field, to the evaluation and capitalization, including support for the development and monitoring of the pilot phase, DOAP ensures the emergence and replication of good practices.

However, it is sometimes tempting to give in and give up in the face of the many paradoxes involved in juxtaposing the terms “humanitarian” and “innovation”:

Donors’ aversion to risk and uncertainty leaves little opportunity for funding in the seed and start-up phases of a new project, a new approach or the implementation of an innovative solution. Paradoxically, however, the humanitarian sector is increasingly endowed with funds dedicated to the implementation of innovative solutions that have already proved their worth in various fields.
The humanitarian culture and the need for rapid and efficient implementation are still far removed from the culture of innovation, research and learning that is inexorably linked to it. The key stage of evaluation and dissemination of good practices and new solutions is also still poorly funded by donors.
Our sectors of technical expertise are conducive to different types of innovation (product innovation, innovation approach or action research). The innovation approach allows us to highlight our technical expertise and increase our credibility and reputation in the sector. However, the technical nature of the solution and the need to adapt it are both the biggest obstacles to the ability to replicate the solution identically in another context, and therefore to the scaling up of the innovation.
Finally, the long temporality of the innovation cycle (multiannual, including a long phase of ideation and preliminary development) cannot be compatible with the necessary efficiency of the solutions implemented in the short term in the phases of response to the shock (rethinking a rapid response mechanism whose short-term response cycles are repeated for many years in the context of repeated shocks, and the temptation is great to look for a more durable solution, is extremely difficult). When people’s lives are at stake, are we willing to risk answering “no” to the question “did the implemented solution work”?

All these constraints increase the risk that organizations focus on “headquarter” / global innovation (e.g. very technological) that brings more communication than impact on people. So, for innovation to solve the transition from theory to practice, we need to encourage the development of innovation in the field, for sustainable solutions that are easy to develop and replicate.

Keeping a sense of action and the perspective of the changes we are contributing to in people’s lives at the heart of our programs is the best guarantee of successful innovation.

Sludge treatment plant, Sittwe, Myanmar. 2020 ®Marine Ricau / Solidarités International

3/ Giving ourselves the means to meet the demands of the humanitarian mandate and to bring the voice of the people to the global level

In addition to being a platform for mobilizing resources to strengthen the organization’s dual approach to quality and innovation, DOAP is mandated to represent the voice of the people at the global level in humanitarian coordination bodies. DOAP represents SI on the steering committees of the EAH Cluster, the SAME Cluster, and the ALNAP Humanitarian Action Evaluation Network.

In order to move from theory to practice, also at the global level, and to be an actor of change in the humanitarian sector and thus promote its dual approach of Quality and Innovation as a guarantee of humanitarian impact, SI has been the incubator of 2 projects financed first by innovation funds, then by institutional funding: The first one, develops a system to strengthen quality and accountability of beneficiaries in the WASH sector (AQA) and the second one, OCTOPUS, allows the improvement of good practices and the monitoring of the implementation of innovative solutions related to emergency sanitation. These two projects are in the process of being transferred to the WASH sector to be integrated as a global coordination tool and approach.


OCTOPUS

Developed by SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL in 2018, the OCTOPUS (Operational Collaborative Tool Of Ongoing Practices in Urgent Sanitation) platform is an online collaborative tool related to fecal sludge disposal and treatment in emergency contexts. It aims to improve sanitation practices through the sharing of knowledge and experiences by stakeholders and experts in fecal sludge management. Case studies present detailed technical and contextual information that sanitation practitioners can draw on to adapt their interventions to the crises they face.

AQA

As of late 2018, the Accountability and Quality Assurance Initiative (AQA) aims to increase the capacity of humanitarian organizations to respond effectively and efficiently to crises by providing decision makers with the information they need to continuously adapt to changing contexts. Based on the industry’s Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control methodology, this initiative relies on the collection of simple data to support evidence-based, results-oriented decision-making, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that quality and accountability standards are met and improved over time. This project is a partnership between Oxfam, Solidarités International, Tufts University, and UNICEF, with support from the Global WASH Cluster and the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector.


The final word

Having a body at the heart of operations that carries this dual approach is a real organizational asset that allows a medium-sized structure to implement Quality and Innovation in the same way as large ones.

The risk-taking inherent in innovation and the development of new approaches is only possible with the guarantee of follow-up, technical support and quality control. Quality and Innovation are therefore intrinsically linked and their effects are mutually beneficial.

The multi-stakeholder approach and the ability to mobilize partners contribute to the richness of the approach and reduce paradoxes.

Behind two words and two approaches that could be considered too conceptual, the specificity of SI is to remain an operational actor in the field, always driven by the desire to remain as close as possible to the populations affected by crises.

All the qualitative levers are activated with a single concern: to maintain a sense of action and commitment for and as close as possible to the people in the most fragile and remote areas.

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Who is Anne-Lise Lavaur ?

After studying political science and children’s rights, Anne-Lise Lavaur joined international organizations (Médecins du Monde Argentina, International Catholic Child Bureau), and became a program coordinator and advocacy officer.

In 2014, she joined SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL in the technical and quality department of the programs of which she became the coordinator eight months later. In 2018, this department evolved into the Deputy Program Operations Department (DPOD). Through the coordination of the team of technical and program referents, this department at the heart of operations guarantees the Quality and Innovation approach of the organization.