Unlocking Community-Driven Solutions for Sustainable Water and Sanitation
In the bustling city of Hyderabad, India, where stark contrasts between affluent neighborhoods and sprawling informal settlements are the norm, the challenge of providing reliable and equitable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services looms large. However, a transformative approach is emerging – one that empowers slum residents as co-designers of WASH infrastructure, leveraging their intimate knowledge of local needs and contexts to drive sustainable change.
Rethinking the Top-Down Approach
Historically, WASH initiatives in Hyderabad have often followed a top-down model, with well-intentioned but disconnected solutions imposed from above. These efforts, while aiming to improve public health and environmental conditions, have frequently missed the mark, failing to account for the unique challenges and perspectives of the very communities they seek to serve.
The case of Shanti, a young woman living in an informal settlement outside Hyderabad, illustrates this disconnect all too well. Shanti and her family rely on a nearby borehole for their daily water needs, despite being within walking distance of a community water treatment center operated by the Naandi Foundation. The reason? The system’s design simply doesn’t fit Shanti’s reality.
“The treatment center requires me to use a 5-gallon jerrican that is too heavy for me to carry,” Shanti explains. “And they make me buy a monthly pass for more water than I need, which wastes my money.” Shanti’s experience highlights how a well-intentioned WASH intervention can fall short when it fails to consider the lived experiences and practical needs of the end-users.
Design Thinking for Social Innovation
Recognizing the limitations of traditional, top-down approaches, a growing number of organizations and practitioners are turning to design thinking as a powerful tool for driving meaningful, community-led change in the WASH sector.
Design thinking is a human-centered methodology that places the needs and experiences of the end-user at the heart of the problem-solving process. By deeply immersing themselves in the lives of the people they aim to serve, design thinkers are able to uncover hidden insights, challenge assumptions, and co-create innovative solutions that are tailored to the unique contexts and aspirations of local communities.
The Positive Deviance Initiative, led by the late Jerry Sternin and his wife Monique, provides a powerful example of how design thinking can unlock community-driven solutions to complex social challenges. In the early 1990s, the Sternins were invited by the Vietnamese government to address high rates of child malnutrition in 10,000 villages across the country.
Rather than imposing a top-down solution, the Sternins took a design thinking approach, embedded themselves in the local communities, and sought to learn from “positive deviants” – families whose children were thriving despite the prevailing conditions. Through careful observation and collaborative problem-solving, the Sternins discovered that these families were supplementing their children’s diets with readily available but overlooked foods, such as tiny shrimps, crabs, and sweet potato greens. By sharing these insights and empowering communities to adopt these positive behaviors, the initiative was able to achieve a remarkable 80% reduction in child malnutrition within the first year.
Empowering Slum Residents in Hyderabad
Inspired by the Positive Deviance Initiative and other design thinking success stories, a growing number of WASH practitioners in Hyderabad are now exploring ways to partner with slum residents as co-designers of their community’s infrastructure and services.
One such initiative is being led by the Hyderabad-based nonprofit organization, Paani. Recognizing the limitations of top-down WASH interventions, Paani has adopted a design thinking approach that puts the needs and aspirations of slum communities at the center of their work.
“We start by deeply immersing ourselves in the daily lives of slum residents,” explains Amrita, a Paani project manager. “We conduct ethnographic research, shadowing community members, and engaging them in generative design activities to uncover their unmet needs and hidden strengths.”
Through this process, Paani has discovered a wealth of local innovations and adaptations that have emerged organically within slum communities. For example, many residents have developed ingenious ways of harvesting and storing rainwater to supplement their limited access to piped water supply. Others have created small-scale, community-based waste management systems to address the lack of municipal services.
“These grassroots solutions are often invisible to outsiders,” says Amrita. “But by partnering with slum residents as co-designers, we can identify and amplify these local innovations, integrating them into more holistic and sustainable WASH interventions.”
Co-Creation in Action
One of Paani’s ongoing co-creation projects is focused on improving sanitation facilities in the Banjara Hills slum. Working closely with community members, the organization has convened design workshops, organized focus group discussions, and conducted household surveys to better understand the residents’ unique needs and preferences.
“Many of the existing public toilets in the area are poorly maintained, unsafe for women and children, and located far from people’s homes,” explains Asha, a Banjara Hills resident who has been actively involved in the project. “Through the co-design process, we’ve been able to identify key design criteria, such as the need for dedicated female and family-friendly stalls, better lighting and ventilation, and convenient siting within the community.”
Based on these insights, Paani is now prototyping and testing various sanitation unit designs, engaging slum residents at every step to ensure the solutions truly meet their needs. This iterative, user-centered approach has already yielded promising results, with the community enthusiastically embracing the prototypes and offering valuable feedback to further refine the designs.
“It’s empowering to be treated as an equal partner, rather than just a passive beneficiary,” says Asha. “We know our community best, and by working alongside the Paani team, we can create sanitation solutions that truly work for us.”
Scaling Community-Driven WASH Solutions
The success of Paani’s co-creation approach in Banjara Hills has sparked growing interest among other slum communities in Hyderabad, as well as municipal authorities and development agencies seeking more effective and sustainable WASH interventions.
“What we’re seeing is a shift in mindset – from viewing slum residents as problems to be solved, to recognizing them as valuable co-creators and experts in their own right,” says Amrita. “By tapping into local knowledge and agency, we can develop WASH solutions that are not only more relevant and impactful, but also more likely to be adopted and maintained by the community.”
To facilitate the scaling of these community-driven WASH innovations, Paani is actively collaborating with the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, sharing their design thinking methodology and co-created prototypes to inform city-wide policy and investment decisions.
“It’s a win-win scenario,” explains Amrita. “The municipality benefits from our deep community insights and user-tested solutions, while slum residents gain a greater voice in shaping the WASH infrastructure and services that impact their daily lives.”
Replicating the Model Elsewhere
As the Paani team continues to refine and scale their co-creation approach in Hyderabad, they are also exploring opportunities to share their learnings and methodologies with other WASH practitioners and organizations around the world.
“Design thinking has the power to unlock community-driven solutions to some of the most complex WASH challenges, but it requires a fundamental shift in mindset and practice,” says Amrita. “By showcasing the impact of our work in Hyderabad, we hope to inspire and empower other WASH professionals to embrace a more inclusive, collaborative, and human-centered approach.”
Indeed, the potential for design thinking to transform the WASH sector is vast, as evidenced by the success stories emerging not only in Hyderabad, but also in communities across the Global South. From the Positive Deviance Initiative in Vietnam to the mosquito net distribution programs in Africa, design thinking has consistently proven its ability to uncover hidden innovations, challenge assumptions, and co-create solutions that truly meet the needs of the people they serve.
As the world continues to grapple with the urgent challenges of ensuring universal access to clean water and adequate sanitation, the experiences of Hyderabad’s slum residents and the work of organizations like Paani offer a powerful blueprint for a more inclusive, sustainable, and community-driven future. By empowering those closest to the problem to become co-designers of the solution, the WASH sector can unlock the transformative potential of design thinking and joint action for water.
