A Day in the Life: Safe Agua Chile (continuation)

Week by week & drop to drop, twelve students from the Art Center College of Design are working towards social change.  In a partnership with Un Techo para mi Pais, the students will develop new tools for using, storing and transporting WATER, to improve the quality of life of poor families.  This week, continue learning what it is like to be in A Day in the Life of the local people from campamentos, without running potable water.

"I am tired... it's laundry day and I just got started," these are the words of  Mireya, a local  habitant of campamentos.  We met Mireya last week. She's exhausted of using so many containers to transport water.  Her daily tasks are doubled by the lack of running water just like many others in campamentos.

Mireya will use all of these containers to store water.  The students notice the size of the water container determines its purpose, requiring the use of multiple different containers for each task.  Relying on multiple containers to complete a single task is not time or energy efficient.  Also, storing water like this increases the possibility of water contamination, since containers are not always stored properly and often pick up dirt and germs.  For this reason, children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at a time. The water's life cycle and sanitation can pose risks to the entire community, starting from the moment it leaves the source to consumption.

To read more on Mireya's and other locals' daily energy-intensive activities, watch the presentation  above made by students: Jackie, Narbeh, and Stella.

Statistics say people in the U.S.A spend an average of 2 hours per day on housework.  Families in the campamentos can spend an entire day just doing laundry; they usually use components which are all around the house. Washing dishes and showering takes a similar long and exhausting path.  Mireya, would wake up at 6:30 A.M. to prepare the bath water so her children can go to school.  It would take several minutes to boil water and carry it.  Notice that it takes 15-25 gallons of water in the average 5  minute shower.  To all local people in the campamentos, daily tasks are energy-intensive activities, given that they have to carry water containers all over the place and they may injure themselves. 

Water plays an imperative role in the campamentos, and "running water is an emotional issue" to the people living in the campamentos." (Diana, student).  Last week, we learned how depression affecting some habitants may be caused by the lack of basic needs, like running water.  For this reason, they want to make these everyday tasks more convenient and SAFE by bringing them indoors or decreasing the amount of travel necessary to complete them.

The students are starting to understand the issues affecting the lives of these families.  They are now wondering:  WHAT IF students could design a new system through wich water is delivered? WHAT IF these families could actually have a running water system? WHAT IF there was a way to minimize the number of steps to their daily tasks? WHAT IF there was a way to bathe indoors?  The students will have to work on these questions and find out how possible it is to make it a reality. Here's is where the work begins!

Next week, get closer to discovering step by step & drop to drop the production of innovative products to help the families in campamentos of Santiago, Chile, overcome their water issues. The students will be working towards the creation of:

1. Potable Drinking Water: Purification using Clorox, color-coded, clean storage for specific uses.
2. Pressurized Water System: Low tech water pump and delivery within the home
3. Warm Shower: One-step heating and showering
4. Community Laundry: To reduce task-related injuries, save time, and create a social space
5. Indoor Workstation: To help understand value of water and facilitate re-use
6. Job Sharing Network: Income generating opportunities

See you next week! And in the mean time, check out pictures of the team below.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Click here to go to last week's post.