Won the award for the 'Inclusive Business Model' category at the highly prestigious EFMD Case Writing Competition, organized by European Foundation for Management Development. The case was adjudged the 'Best of the Best' along with Said Business School (University of Oxford)
This case won the third prize in the oikos Global Case Writing Competition 2010 (Social Entrepreneurship Track), organized by the oikos Foundation for Economy and Ecology, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

WaterHealth International: Providing Safe Drinking Water to the Bottom of the Pyramid Consumers

Case Code: LDEN069 Case Length: 26 Pages Period: 1992-2009 Pub Date: 2010 Teaching Note: Available

Price: Rs.500 Organization : WaterHealth International Inc. Industry :Safe Water Countries : India, Africa, Global Themes: Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts

Introduction

In February 2009, Irvine, California-based WaterHealth International Inc. (WHI) received a funding of US$ 15 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to expand its operations in India. With the funding, it was expected that more than 600 communities in India would be able to set up WaterHealth Centers (WHCs) with a capacity to serve over 3 million people. On receiving the funding, Tralance Addy (Addy), founder of WHI, said, "In response to the need to address the urgent problem of water-borne diseases, WaterHealth plans to expand rapidly. As we continue to do so as a result of strong demand, our need for capital to help communities finance these systems also increases.

We are pleased, particularly in these challenging economic times, that IFC has elected to strengthen its relationship with WHI." Ever since its launch in 1996, WHI had been involved in dealing with one of the most pressing problems in developing countries worldwide - scarcity of potable water. It was estimated that more than 2 billion people lacked access to clean drinking water in developing countries. These people, therefore, often relied on water resources that were contaminated. It was reported that nearly 60 million children suffered from diminutive growth due to water-borne diseases. In addition to deaths and economic loss, women and girls, on whom the burden of obtaining water for the family fell, had to trek long distances and spend around six hours of their time fetching water - time that could be better spent with family or on economic activities.

WHI aimed to alleviate the suffering caused by water-borne diseases and the associated economic loss through its innovative and breakthrough UV Waterworks (UVW) technology. The UVW technology was invented by Ashok Gadgil (Gadgil), an Indian-born senior physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory5 (Berkeley Lab) in 1993, for disinfecting water from harmful pathogens and microbes with the help of ultraviolet light (UV)...

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