Ripple Affect - The Hydraid BioSand Water Filter

“On July 28, 2010, through Resolution 64/292, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights.” This excerpt taken from the headline of this UN website that proclaimed a ‘Water for Life’ International Decade of Action for 2005-2015. I find myself compelled to extend the “ripple affect” of social enterprises that align with the Global UN initiative to increase access to safe water. At the intersection of social enterprise and world water, exists the product that I am proud to focus on, the Hydraid BioSand Water
Filter.

 

The HydraidBioSand Water Filter helps bring safe water to over 550,000 people in  35 counties around the Globe – and counting. Hydriad is a product of Triple Quest, a Social Enterprise which is a joint effort between Cascade Engineering and The Windquest Group, a West Michigan-based private investment fund. Triple Quest was formed to provide essential needs products that are capable of helping people live healthier, more productive, and happier lives. This excerpt taken from the Hydraid website clarifies their intent:

“We believe in empowering people by addressing the fundamental issues that keep them from fully participating in society’s educational and economic opportunities. Our premier product the Hydraid® BioSand Water Filter addresses the essential need for safe, clean water. It is our belief that safe water is fundamental to a healthy society.”

It all began when a group of intrepid Rotarians and water expert Dr. Davind Manz created and patented a concrete water filter that was based on slow sand filtration, a technology that, over the course of many centuries, has proven to be highly effective. Because the original filter design called for the use of concrete, the logistics involved in transporting this rather heavy and unwieldy filter proved overwhelming when attempting to fulfill orders to many Global rural zones – places that are most desperately in need of solutions like Hydraid.

Not allowing the challenges before them to rest insurmountable, the Rotarians and Dr. Manz decided to contact Cascade Engineering, an engineering firm that operates with the dual pillars of sustainability and innovation. Cascade Engineering also has extensive experience in applying core competencies in plastics toward social and environmental good, so the Rotarians saw a natural fit. Cascade Engineering continually embodies the words of their Founder and CEO, Fred Keller. Fred has concisely the Cascade Engineering business approach as, “Starting with something good, and making it good business.” Upon this elegantly simple, and straightforward foundation rest the two pillars of the organization: sustainability and innovation. Indeed, Cascade Engineering has practiced sustainable business since 1973, during times before the word sustainability even existed. Cascade Engineering has been thinking for tomorrow since the beginning, with a concrete history of weighing social, environmental, and financial considerations. Cascade also has a legacy of taking on the “hard jobs” that have been turned down by other firms due to their complexity. This legacy of can-do attitudes and engineering expertise has led to global breakthroughs and engineering firsts. In these ways, Cascade Engineering can speak authentically of sage experience in the realms of sustainability and innovation. Well known in many Rotarian circles, all of these facts contributed to the selection of Cascade Engineering for the research and development of a plastic Hydraid BioSand Water filter. A thorough and high-profile product development phase involving key engineers and businesspeople from Dow, Windquest, and Cascade Engineering yielded the development of a plastic BioSand water filter, whose existence expands the reach of Dr. Manz’s original filter schematics.

 

The core audience of the Hydraid BioSand water Filter is “at-risk families” in developing countries around the world. Currently 55,00 filters are in use in over 35 countries around the Globe, and with an average per-filter use of 10 people, this equates to over a half a million lives being impacted. Here is a testimonial from one of Hydraid’s end-users:

“Yes, here I am in my home with my filter. I feel very proud for having it. It’s a whole story because the truth of the matter is that my children lives have changed. I want to tell you that is a life in which I don’t suffer of the diseases that I used to for long time getting medicines. At this time my filter here in this community of Gualciras, la Union Lempira, Department of Lempira has been a success. I feel very proud for all those who got it. I ask them from the deep of my heart to take good care of our filters because is the best of the best that we got here in our community. I feel proud of it."
 

This testimonial from the community of Gualciras is a clear indicator of the worldwide impact created by Hydriad. Hydraid is the technology of choice in reports from water researcher Dr. Mark Sobsey from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Sobsey’s reports are very important in that they indicated that Hydraid is the most sustainable technology in regards to “consistent, correct, and continuous usage.” This is good news for the most important stakeholders – the end users. This “consistent, correct, and continuous” usage indicates that Hydraid is well designed, and approachable to tens of thousands of people in need. In addition to the abundance of life-changing health benefits that grace those who are able to transition out of the use of turbid water for drinking, cooking, and bathing, the Hydraid has additional sustainable benefits that extend beyond providing access to safe water. Here is an excerpt from their website that explains some of the triple bottom line thinking that exists in their approach: 

“Environmentally, the Hydraid^® filter reduces carbon emissions by decreasing the need to treat water by boiling it and does not have any parts that need replacing and afterwards become trash. The filter lasts for over ten years and increases a family’s income by lowering their costs for medicine and buying prepared water. Less family sickness means more time for productive activities and school attendance for the children, which increase lifetime earnings. It’s a triple bottom line win-win-win.”

Lessons learned from compiling this review on the Hydraid BioSand Water Filter include practical applications of collaboration, innovation, and the power of “starting with something good, and making it good business,” as Fred Keller says. As a social enterprise, Triple Quest has done just that. Starting with the notion that people around the planet deserve access to safe water as a foundation to their overall success and happiness, collaborative action was taken, bringing key people from highly experienced firms together to start solving the problem of universal access to safe water. Hydraid inspires me to never lose touch with ideas that have the potential create as much good as possible, no matter how challenging the odds may seem.