Elevator Pitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf8UW-4jWgk&feature=youtu.be

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

This is what I found from my interviews:

Who: The people outside of my boundary share something with the people inside of my boundary; they obviously all need water to survive, and they need the water to be of high enough quality so that they aren’t exposed to certain health risks. The thing is, the people outside of my boundary don’t have issues finding this clean water. They are lucky enough to live in an area where high-quality water is easily accessible from their home.

What: Most people can agree that clean-drinking water is unlike any other need in terms of importance and magnitude. We need to drink water in order to survive; you can’t say that about many other “needs”.

Why: The underlying cause behind the needs of the people inside of this boundary vs. the needs of this people outside of this boundary all has to do with where/how someone lives. People that live in areas where pollution is especially high and water-quality is especially low have this unmet need for easily-accessible clean drinking water.

Inside the boundary:

Who is in: People in the United States that live in an area where water quality is low  

What the need is: They have limited access to clean water because water filters in the home from a fridge, Brita, etc., are not strong enough to take all harmful chemicals out of the water. They need easily accessible- high quality drinking water.

Why the need exists: Increased pollution is causing these low levels of water quality.

Outside the boundary:

Who is not: People in the United States who already have easy access to clean drinking in their home.

What the need is not: The need is not a material item, or something that will simply make their day-to-day lives easier. It is something that is crucial to the health and survival of the people with this need.

Alternative explanations: People that don’t currently have this need are lucky enough to live in an area where the water quality is high enough so that they can safely drink water from their home. These people do not need to take any extra steps to access clean drinking water.

Solving the Problem

   The opportunity that I am exploring is one that helps solve an issue regarding access to clean water. People in the United States don’t always have easy access to clean water. In many places, it can be unsafe to drink the water in their homes due to high levels of harmful substances and chemicals. The water filters in homes including the ones found in a fridge, or the use of filtration systems such as a Brita water purifier, may not provide a strong enough filtration to completely remove these unsafe chemicals including chlorine, lead, and arsenic. 

   My idea for a service that could help solve this issue would be to have kiosks set up in a similar way that you would see an ATM set up. These kiosks would be some sort of reverse osmosis water purification system that would dispose water that is actually safe for the community to drink. Customers would pay a certain price per gallon of water that is assured to be clear of any toxic chemicals that would otherwise be unavoidable using there at-home water filtration systems.   

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

The who: People in the United States where water quality is low  

The what: They have limited access to clean water because water filters in the home from a fridge, Brita, etc., are not strong enough to take all harmful chemicals out of the water.

The why: Increased pollution is causing these low levels of water quality.

Testing the who: People in other countries have this need as well.

Testing the what: Some areas in the United States have high enough water quality that this is not currently a need. At-home water filters do a good enough job of removing chemicals.

Testing the why: Most people will agree that poor water quality is a result of the great amounts of pollution in the United States.

Interview Questions:

Have you ever had trouble finding access to clean water?

What kind of areas do you think water contamination issues are the greatest?

Do you feel safe drinking water right straight from the tap?

Where does most of the water you consume come from? Water bottles? Tap water?

Why is water contamination an issue?

Why are people having a hard time solving this issue of clean?

Interview reflection:

What I’ve found from my interviews is that most people haven’t had issues accessing clean water in Florida, but when visiting/living in other states, it sometimes becomes an issue. In many of these other states, water straight from the tap can be unpleasant to drink, as it can have a chlorine taste and/or be contaminated. Measures must be taken to filter this water and even then, it may not completely take out all of the harmful chemicals in the water. Most of the people I interviewed believe that rural, low income areas are the most likely to have low quality water. Most people said they feel safe drinking water from their tap here in Gainesville, but try to drink filtered water and/or water bottles if it is available. Everyone seemed to agree that water contamination is an issue due to the great amounts of pollution in the United States, and that it is hard to solve this issue because it is hard to prevent this pollution from occurring.