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Co-Designing Affordable Tools to Support Rural Water Systems in El Salvador
Date
2020
Client
Oxfam El Salvador
Location
El Salvador
Impact Areas
Community-Centered Innovation
Water Sanitation and Hygiene
Services
Workshop Design
Facilitator Capacity Building
Engineering and Fabrication Consulting
Facilitation Mentorship
Selected Methods
Participatory Design
Community-led Design and Fabrication
In 2020, PamLab partnered with Oxfam America El Salvador, and CORDES, a local community-based organization at El Salvador, to develop a community-based innovation intervention focused on strengthening rural water systems in the country. We developed a multi-day innovation curriculum based on MIT D-Lab’s Creative Capacity Building framework, and trained local facilitators to lead the curriculum with community teams. In addition to this, we mentored local facilitators throughout the workshop preparation and implementation process.
Through the workshops, community teams identified pressing issues with their current water systems, and designed, built, and tested solutions using locally available materials. Some of the technologies created in these workshops include: a turbidity filtration mechanism made with spare water tank parts, an air-release valve for water pipes, made with readily available motorcycle parts, and an improved chlorine tablet dispenser.
