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Primary Area of Impact: Clean Water and Sanitation
Geographic Areas: Asia
Year Founded: 2005
Website: www.cddindia.org
Overview
EarthEnable’s mission is to make living conditions healthier and more dignified for the world’s poor. Their primary product is an affordable alternative to dirt floors: locally sourced, earthen floors that are 70% cheaper than a concrete floor.
Their model is centered around leveraging the demand for sanitary housing already present in local villages and the knowledge of earthen solutions amongst local construction workers. By using a micro-franchise business model, they empower local masons to become entrepreneurs who offer affordable housing solutions to their community. This business model is comprised of three components: first EarthEnable finds, vets, and trains masons to become micro-franchisees; second, those who are certified as micro-franchisees sell and install earthen products within their community; and third EarthEnable provides the research and development (R&D) and quality assurance to help these micro-franchisees thrive.
Social Challenge
There is little doubt that India is one of the more acutely water stressed countries in the world, with >19% of the total world population who do not have access to clean water supply residing in India. Our water resources are being continuously exploited and we currently face a severe water management crisis; more than half of India’s districts are threatened by groundwater depletion & contamination due to human use whereas surface water resources face widespread pollution due to inadequate sanitation & indiscriminate industrial effluent disposal. In addition to water resource depletion, there are also severe health implications of this pollution and mismanagement of water resources – 4% of all deaths and ~6% of all diseases/ ill-health are caused due to poor quality of drinking water, lack of sanitation and hygiene practices. To tackle these challenges, there is a strong need in countries like India to manage water and other environmental resources in an integrated manner to enable healthier and hence happier living among communities, across the social and economic strata.
Poor water and environmental resources impact everyone but the poor more so, as they tend to live closer to dumping grounds and polluted waterbodies, infected with mosquitoes, and do not have sufficient means to protect themselves from the same.
Accomplishments
- In 2020, our laboratory was accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL)
- Our work helped Alleppey Municipality receive recognition for the best small city in ‘Innovations and Best Practices’ for decentralised wastewater treatment in Swachh Survekshan 2020
- In 2019, we received SIRO recognition by the Department of Science and Technology, GoI
- CDD Society was the adjudged winner in the Social Impact category at the Spirit of Humanity 2018 Award by Americares
- Our Laboratory is one of six global laboratories under the Global Partnership of Laboratories for Faecal Sludge Analysis (GPLFSA)