Reinventing boiling: A rapid ethnographic and engineering evaluation of a high-efficiency thermal water treatment technology in Uganda

Abstract Often in engineering for global development, product designers do not have the time or resources to conduct long-term technology adoption studies with large sample sizes for every iteration of their design and therefore must rely on shorter, targeted studies that measure both the technical and user acceptance parameters. This work presents a combination of experimental engineering and rapid anthropological methods to provide a mixed-methods approach to evaluate and improve the design of a novel water treatment technology, the InStove Water Purifier. This product uses the principles of pasteurization and heat recuperation to theoretically reduce energy consumption for water purification by 97% in a continuous process, producing enough water for 1400 people each day. The case study in Mbale, Uganda, used rapid ethnographic methods that included participant observation, focal follow, and time allocation; and engineering performance experiments that included fuel efficiency tests, water bacteria measurements, and data collection of temperature and flow rates. Data from all methods were synthesized in a Diffusion of Innovations (DoI) framework to gain insight into potential barriers and benefits of adoption of the technology within this specific context. As defined in a DoI framework, potential benefits to adoption include decreased overall time and labor to purify water, decrease in use of biomass resources, increase in overall water throughput, and low learning curve for the product operator. Similarly, potential barriers to user acceptance include the trust required by users towards product efficacy, lack of customization, and potentially undesirable changes in time allocation and fuel wood preparation.