IDEO.org partnered with Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) to design the pilot test of a new pit latrine emptying business in Zambia. Lack of access to pit emptying services is a contributing factor to why nearly 7 million Zambians do not have improved latrine facilities. WSUP estimates show the consumer market for this service could be worth an estimated $7.5 million annually. 

Opportunities for Design

Today, most Zambian pit latrine owners have only one option when their pit fills: they hire a local worker to empty the latrine by hand. Manual emptying is hazardous, time consuming, and, since the manual emptier only moves the waste to another location on the same property, ultimately unsustainable.

Seeking to address this need, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funded the development of the Omni Ingestor—an innovative new technology designed to improve the efficacy and efficiency of mechanical pit latrine emptying. When finalized, the Omni Ingestor will be able to remove waste with a much higher density of solids than existing vacuum truck pumps and will maintain suction over a greater distance, meaning pit latrines further from the road will now be accessible.

Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor and IDEO.org have teamed up to ask: How might we design a business around the Omni Ingestor to make improved pit latrine emptying viable?

What We Designed

Together with WSUP we’ve designed Pump Away, an effective, accessible and consistent service using the Omni Ingestor technology to keep the pit latrines of Lusaka in good working order. The Pump Away service is designed to meet customer needs while demonstrating the viability of a new business model.

Pump Away will be pilot tested in 2014 once the technology is finalized. We have designed a startup guide to help WSUP get it off the ground. The guide includes Brand Values, Customer Journey, Business Model, Launch Plan, Branded Collateral and potential Scaling Strategies for post-pilot growth.