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| Image via CharityWater http://www.charitywater.org/blog/jerry-can/ |
Stainless Steel Jerry Cans
In
many developing countries, the plastic Jerry can is ubiquitous. Usually bright
yellow in color, Jerry cans can be seen on the heads and backs of rural
citizens around the world as they carry water long distances from source to
home. These containers are cheap, durable, and light. They perform a vital
service to many households in their increasingly difficult search for usable water.
Yet
these same communities are often afflicted with numerous water-borne diseases.
Some water sources are visibly dirty, while others appear clean but actually
contain microscopic bacteria and other contaminants; both are dangerous to a
family’s health, with a particular danger for small children. Diarrhea is a
leading cause of under-5 mortality, and contaminated water is a major source of
diarrhea. A simple technique to purify water for drinking is boiling it, yet
this task is not regularly done in poor rural communities. Even when a family
does boil its drinking or cooking water, it rarely boils water used for
cleaning dishes, washing vegetables, or hand washing. With a plastic Jerry can,
a mother must poor out some water into a pot, boil it, and then use it. This is
a great deal of work for water that will just be used to wash a child’s hand
after using the latrine.
A
simple solution would be to return to the Jerry can’s original structure:
steel. While water could not be boiled in a plastic Jerry can without leeching
and deformation, water in a steel Jerry can could be boiled in its container. The
original Jerry cans, used to haul gasoline during World War II, would be very
heavy, but a stainless steel version could be light enough to carry and thin
enough to quickly boil water. Many families have a slight fire going throughout
the day, as they prepare different dishes for meals. A mother could return with
her stainless steel Jerry can, place it on the fire, and boil her entire
container of water to purify it. This would create liters of clean water that
was still in its original container, preventing it from at-home contamination.
This water could be used as needed for cooking, drinking, and washing.
This
simple switch from plastic to stainless steel Jerry cans would ease the work of
health workers in encouraging behavior change in regards to boiling water, as
it would create a single step where multiple steps previously existed. It could
also be applied in urban settings, where a family member might not go as far to
fetch the water, but the water she does fetch may be even dirtier. A stainless
steel Jerry can serve as a water transportation device, boiling device, and
storage device. Yet there are crucial considerations to ensure this transition
is successful:
·
Weight: Even a stainless steel Jerry can may
prove too heavy to carry long distances, so all considerations must be made to
ensure it is light. An alternative could be aluminum, yet this material may
leech dangerous chemicals during boiling. Instead, a sturdy yet thin structure
of stainless steel is ideal.
·
Cost: One of the main advantages of the plastic
Jerry can is its cheap price. The material is inexpensive and the canisters are
available just about everywhere. Health workers would need to partner with
donors to subsidize the cost of a stainless steel Jerry can, while product
designers worked to create a cheap-yet-effective container. One possibility is
to work with local metal-workers to build the stainless steel Jerry can, but
this may require extensive materials and skill-building. Also, fuel wood would
be necessary to boil the large container.
·
Safety: Despite being used to moving hot pots in
the kitchen, women would need to be trained to handle the stainless steel Jerry
cans very carefully post-boiling to avoid burns. They should be encouraged to
wait a period of time to allow the container to cool.
Despite these
important considerations, the simplicity of this intervention could prove very
useful. A single boil could provide the family with many liters of clean water.
This innovation is not a new technology: the container would be familiar to
everyone, so the transition would hopefully be easy.
[For more on the Jerry Can, check out the cool history via CharityWater]
