Some 1.2 billion people worldwide are drinking unsafe water. Although many organizations purify water at a community scale, people spend significant time and effort to transport it—and it often becomes contaminated during the trip. From retrieval to consumption, water’s journey is complex and provides ample opportunities for improvement.

Acumen Fund and IDEO, with backing from the Gates Foundation, joined forces to tackle the issues of water transport and storage. The Ripple Effect project aims to improve access to safe drinking water for over 500,000 of the world’s poorest and most underserved people; to stimulate innovation among local water providers; and to build the capacity for future development in the water sector as a whole. Acumen Fund, a nonprofit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve large-scale problems, brings experience in the water sector and a deep understanding of what brings success to social enterprise. IDEO offers a human-centered approach to designing products, services, and interactions.

Ripple Effect is a new model that connects organizations, provides insights and inspiration, and gives design and business support to entrepreneurs looking to develop new offerings. The project is entirely public: Acumen Fund and IDEO teams are working closely with local companies and NGOs that provide safe drinking water, and capturing learnings for others to benefit from. The first phase of the project takes place in India (November 2008 to June 2009), and the second phase is in East Africa (July 2009 to March 2010). In each region, our work starts with field research to understand the needs and desires of stakeholders in the water journey, from customers to providers. We then gather organizations to share insights and collaborate around solutions—products, services, and systems that improve water delivery and storage. This is followed by the Ripple Effect Award, an eight-week funded pilot phase during which the awardees prototype new business ideas with help from the IDEO and Acumen Fund teams.

“There is no silver bullet to the world water crisis. Addressing the crisis certainly is not simply a matter of better product design—we will need a range of options that accommodate for the myriad varying climatic, hydrological, terrestrial, and cultural dimensions of the problem,” noted Jonathan Greenblatt of Worldchanging.org. “New players like IDEO can offer highly useful lessons from the field of design that, when adapted to the water sector, could yield interesting results.”

To date, our work in India has contributed to new distribution models, automated water vending machines, and better vessels for existing businesses. These small-scale pilots provide the awardees with opportunities for learning and experimentation, developing new business innovations before taking them to scale. We plan to follow a similar model in Africa.

Visit the Ripple Effect blog here.

Download The Phase 1 Report here.