Plants, animals, and humans are all dependent upon water. Plants have evolved to filter dirty water, even creating fruit that is safe for human consumption. Animals are pretty resilient overall, but people are much less so. Our survival depends upon a clean, reliable water source. Access to drinkable water is a constant struggle for many people, but it is barely a consideration for others, that is, until their water is disrupted by disaster. Though the human body may be able to go without food for weeks, it can only survive without water for a matter of days. It is why water is the first priority for most disaster responses including events such as Hurricane Katrina where people found themselves surrounded by water. It is just like the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”…water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink. Still, moving all that needed water is fraught with difficult logistical challenges.

The initial phase of an emergency response situation (~15 days) is critical to ensure public health and safety. Before electricity is restored and water filtration can be re-established, large quantities of water are brought in by truck or plane at a considerable expense. Even when freely donated, the water is expensive to transport and getting them into dehydrated hands is often logistically complex with time constantly ticking away. These factors contribute to water comprising 50% of the weight of U.S. airlifts to disaster areas. All these delivery challenges encouraged innovators to explore better solutions for faster deployment at reduced costs.

RKS’ established relationship with Eastman was built upon exploring material innovation and applications. It provided a window for collaboration with Hydration Technology Innovations (HTI) and their joint initiative to innovate solutions for mitigating hydration and suffering during disaster situations. Together, Eastman, HTI, and team had created HydroPack, a solution that amazingly provides clean water and nutrients from dirty, undrinkable water through the process of osmosis. It is a self-hydrating drink pouch that can be thrown into a mud puddle, swimming pool, or other non-potable water. After several hours, the packet is filled with filtered water that is rendered safe to drink. Even nutrients, electrolytes, and flavorings are added to improve health and taste while sustaining life.

RKS was inspired by their collective efforts to save lives and reduce waterborne diseases, but shared concerns about obstacles encountered during initial usage tests conducted in Mudimbia, Kenya–an area on Lake Victoria prone to flooding. We were eager to lend our expertise to help improve upon a great idea. The team engaged with Eastman and HTI to brainstorm, identify, and illustrate key tactical product improvements and opportunity spaces that would advance HydroPack as the definitive interim hydration solution in disaster scenarios. To accomplish this objective, the ecosystem challenges, the user pain points, and the design weaknesses of the current HydroPack would all need to be addressed. The team was excited by a challenge that would harness RKS’ strength in design, strategy, and research towards such a worthy cause.

Following a disaster, getting water into the hands of people is challenged by difficult-to-reach terrain and destroyed community infrastructure. Traditional bottled water often cannot survive the military airdrop due to its weight and fragility. Hydropack is the ideal alternative for these situations with its lighter weight, portability, and smaller footprint. In fact, it would take 15 helicopters to deliver the same amount of lifesaving bottled water as one helicopter loaded with HydroPacks.

However, initial usage in Kenya revealed several, unforeseen pain points for users. People were unfamiliar with this new technology which led to issues regarding believability, readiness cues, unintentional destruction when opening, straw contamination, harmless dye/flavor leakage across the membrane, and the concept of HydroPack as a single-usage, short-term solution. People also wanted more information—from expiration dates to disposal instructions and even which nutrient flavor they were selecting.

All five concepts used forward osmosis, the innovative filtration similar to a tree drawing water up from its roots.

Icon was a strawless concept with a notch on the side users to “tear here”; the base allowed flat placement, preventing spills during consumption. Tear featured an iconic shape, carry handle, clean drinking surface without a straw, and improved utility as a multipack. Day Pack gave users control over the quantity of fluid intake. It was heat-sealed in the middle with either a handle for easier transport or a tie to prevent fluid loss. Drink Can evoked the image of a common soda can expanding when filling from a compacted shape.

Boat intuitively communicated placement of the unit into water with the membrane side down. Once filled, it openens to a rectangular shape reveal the drinking hole.

Aspects of each concept were evaluated and combined into a new, strategic directive that would ensure HydroPacks are intuitive, simple, hygienic, and lifesaving irrespective of the regions or cultures using it.

However, initial usage in Kenya revealed several, unforeseen pain points for users. People were unfamiliar with this new technology which led to issues regarding believability, readiness cues, unintentional destruction when opening, straw contamination, harmless dye/flavor leakage across the membrane, and the concept of HydroPack as a single-usage, short-term solution. People also wanted more information—from expiration dates to disposal instructions and even which nutrient flavor they were selecting.

RKS helped develop appropriate and actionable strategies to tackle ecosystem-related challenges regarding issues of community adoption, logistics, and financing by pre-positioning delivery in the final mile, long-term local manufacturing, and funding strategies. It quickly became clear that properly funding HydroPack initiatives globally would require a broader campaign starting with education of government officials and NGOs about distribution costs.

HydroPacks cost only 19 cents per liter in transfer costs while bottled water is roughly $2 a liter and the expense can be higher during a crisis situation. In fact, HTI estimated that 90% of the cost of shipping water to Haiti after the earthquake could have been saved by using HydroPacks thereby reallocating roughly $700,000 in logistical expenses towards other relief measures.

The pre-positioning strategy targets getting HydroPacks to the appropriate regional locations in advance for the greatest utility during the initial phases of a disaster. This involved exploring strategies to partner with select relief organizations possessing existing pre-positioning networks. The teams investigated ways to partner with corporate logistics experts such as WalMart, Lowes, and Office Depot, but also with global transport experts like UPS and FedEx who have worldwide expertise with customer requirements that can help HTI plan and possibly fund pre-positioning initiatives. The advantages of various alternatives were explored and an action plan developed.

Local Manufacturing

The advantages of localized manufacturing are obvious and numerous beyond just quick and easy access to large amounts of goods for local NGO use and emergency responses. Transportation costs and delivery times are reduced and local jobs are created for economic and political stability. Designers prototyped, tested, and systemized a localized manufacturing model as a basis for scaling production to other areas of the world.

The Final Mile

The team tackled transportation logistics, especially the critical “final mile” or last leg of distribution to ensure water gets from drop-off locations to where it is needed. The community infrastructure is often compromised following a disaster. Military airdrop was one scenario the team had to consider while improving on the design, but often low-tech solutions are also employed such as bicycles and ground transport by foot. The team looked at aligning the design and ecosystem to meet these realities, exploring how materials like tarps could be converted to complement and elevate the HydroPack experience.

Multiple funding strategies which have proven successful for similar organizations and NGOs were reviewed such as targeting corporate sponsors who wanted to build or shape their image through social responsibility partnerships, fundraisers, events, and other outreach programs. The team explored online funding platforms and social media strategies including the creation of a “tribe of life” which built a community around the life-giving innovation. RKS helped activate strategies to procure celebrity involvement and media coverage to support the cause marketing campaign and ensured tax exempt status globally.

RKS is honored by the invitation to contribute to this exciting program driven to save lives and lessen the impact of natural disasters. We are proud to help realize the full promise of this innovative technology—faster deployment and lower cost for bringing water to people after a disaster.

We truly enjoyed working with the impressive teams at HTI, Eastman, and Modern Edge to improve the design and address ecosystem strategy geared towards helping people the most when they are most in need. Stay tuned for HydroPack 2.0.

A big thank you to Alan Lee for providing the wonderful photography.