1. APRIL 2014FIELD INSIGHTS SERIES
1
Adding new pipeline-connected points of sale to our Ghana water systems led sales
volumes to double and improved system economics.
KEY INSIGHTS
Lead Author: Joseph Ampadu-Boakye Contributing Authors: Ryan Hebert, Hew Crooks, Mohammad Awais
• Adoption declines steeply with distance – even within
the first 200m
• Remote kiosks in two communities led to a doubling
in sales, which has sustained over the first year of
operations
• This increase occurred regardless of whether
adoption rates had previously been low or high
• Adding remote kiosks has also reduced per-liter
system cost by up to 56%
A Cost-Effective Approach to Increasing Safe Water Consumption in Ghana
REMOTE KIOSKS
A Promising New Approach to
Water Coverage
It is generally understood in the water sector that convenient
access is an essential determinant of safe water use – when a single
20-liter jerrycan of water weighs nearly 45 lbs., it is not surprising
that consumers place a high value on the ability to collect their
water as near to their homes as possible. We sought to quantify the
relationship between convenience and safe water consumption
in order to strengthen the viability of the systems we operate and
better meet the needs of the communities in which we work.
In Ghana, our approach has been to install “remote kiosks” –
additional points of sale, staffed by a single operator and connected
to a community’s main purification site by pipeline. We currently
operate eight such kiosks in four communities. Our experience to
date has demonstrated that this model represents a cost-effective
approach to increasing safe water consumption. Installing remote
kiosks also reduced per-liter production costs by up to 56%.
Map of
Safe Water Network’s
First 5 Ghana Sites
Dzemeni
Obeyeyie
Oduman
Pokuase
Amasaman
Safe Water Network’s Early Challenges
in Ghana
Safe Water Network has been active in Ghana since 2009, when
we established five water systems in the peri-urban communities
of Amasaman, Obeyeyie, Oduman, and Pokuase, and the rural
community of Dzemeni (see map on following page). In parallel
with our work to launch these systems, we collaborated with
researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health (JHBSPH), who conducted an independent assessment
of the initiative’s impacts.
Once the sites had operated for a full year and the impact of
seasonality was accounted for, a full analysis was conducted to
determine what was working and what wasn’t.
Safe Water Network develops innovative solutions that provide safe water to communities in need. Our goal is to achieve sustainable service delivery
and locally-independent operations through the application of local ownership and market principles.
In Field Insights, we provide a focused analysis of how we’ve approached a particular challenge and what insights have been gained.
For more information, contact info@safewaternetwork.org.

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REMOTE KIOSKS REMOTE KIOSKSFIELD INSIGHTS SERIES FIELD INSIGHTS SERIES
A Cost-Effective Approach to Increasing Safe Water Consumption in Ghana A Cost-Effective Approach to Increasing Safe Water Consumption in Ghana
One of the topics assessed was the geographic distribution of
consumers. Building on a finding from JHBSPH that the median
safe water consumer lived just 124m from a Safe Water Station, we
completed GPS-based maps of all households within 500m of each
of the stations. This process showed a steep decline in household
penetration with distance, even within the first 200m. The results
for Pokuase, shown in Figure 1, are reflective of this general
trend. While community-wide adoption in Pokuase was roughly
33%, this was enormously dependent on distance – from 85% of
households within 100m of the station to just 10% of households
located more than 200m from the station. From this analysis, we
concluded that a higher level of safe water usage in the community
could be achieved by providing consumers with access closer to
their homes.
Dzemeni and Pokuase: Success in
Two Distinct Settings
Safe Water Network established its first two remote kiosks in
Dzemeni in May of 2011, followed by three remote kiosks in Pokuase
five months later.
The two communities represent quite distinct market conditions.
Dzemeni is a rural market center and fishing village of roughly
8,000 people on the shores of Lake Volta. Of the five communities
where systems were launched, Dzemeni is the poorest. The lake
represents an abundant, albeit contaminated, source of water: at
the time of JHBSPH’s initial assessment in 2008, 80% of residents
relied on surface water as their primary water source. With few
alternatives available, Safe Water Network’s water station was able
to quickly achieve high levels of adoption – an estimated 72% of
households community-wide were using the station by the time
of JHBSPH’s 2010 follow-up assessment.
In contrast, Pokuase is a peri-urban community of some 16,000
people on the outskirts of Accra. There, 70% of residents relied on
sachets as their primary source of drinking water at the time of the
initial assessment, with the remainder relying on a mix of public
wells, bottled water, piped systems, and other sources. With such
a variety of alternatives available, adoption of safe water from the
station progressed at a slower pace. As reported above, at the time
of the follow-on survey, some 33% of households community-wide
were using water from the station.
Given these differences, it is perhaps surprising that the
introduction of remote kiosks led to such similar results: in both
communities, sales of safe water roughly doubled in the first
month. It is challenging to determine the proportion of the increase
that is attributable to the remote kiosk, as sales are highly seasonal.
Using year-over-year data – which show growth of 74% in Dzemeni
and over 500% in Pokuase – is also imperfect, as Safe Water
Network implemented a series of improvements in 2010 and 2011
that also contributed to increases, including expanded education
programs and pricing promotions. Regardless, the charts in Figure 2
show a clear break between pre-kiosk and post-kiosk sales.
The increased water sales, combined with the low incremental
operating costs of the remote kiosks, significantly improved the
economics of the safe water stations in Dzemeni and Pokuase.
Total system cost per liter declined by 33% in Dzemeni and 56% in
Pokuase after the remote kiosks were installed (see Figure 3). In
Dzemeni, this difference was sufficient to convert an unprofitable
water system into a profitable one.
However, the details of these volume shifts were different between
communities. Dzemeni, with its high initial rate of adoption, saw
volumes decline at the main site, likely due to some of the more
distant households shifting their consumption to the remote
kiosks. Nonetheless, volumes roughly doubled overall. Full before-
and-after customer counts are not available (see “What’s Next?”);
however, as adoption rates were already at 72%, the increase must
be due in large part to increased consumption per user. In Pokuase,
where initial adoption rates were lower, remote kiosks did not
reduce sales at the main site, with volume increases seemingly
resulting instead from the kiosks’ proximity to new customers.
The increased level of sales has sustained over time at both sites.
Figure 4 (next page) shows sales volumes at Dzemeni for the full
12 months following the introduction of the remote kiosks. While
there is significant month-to-month fluctuation due to seasonality
and other factors, total system volumes have been consistently
above those seen before the remote kiosks were introduced. In
Dzemeni, remote kiosks have represented the majority of overall
sales every month since their launch.
Promising Early Results for New
Remote Kiosks
Based on our results at Dzemeni and Pokuase, we launched
additional remote kiosks at Obeyeyie and Oduman in October 2012.
These sites, like Pokuase, are peri-urban communities near Accra;
however, they are significantly smaller, with populations of roughly
2,500 each. Household adoption in the month before the kiosks
were launched was 73% in Obeyeyie and 34% in Oduman. The
short-term impacts of these new kiosks on overall sales volumes
are shown in Figure 5.
The analysis in these communities is more complicated, as the
introduction of remote kiosks coincided with significant unrelated
challenges: there were difficulties securing required quantities of
Fig. 1: Household Mapping in Pokuase shows
concentration of customers near the station
85%
55%
10%
>100100-200
Distance from Site (m)
HouseholdPenetration
<100
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
200m
100m
Remote kiosk operator Enoch Agbemor with a customer in Dzemeni
Fig. 2: Remote kiosks lead to doubling of sales in
Dzemeni & Pokuase
Fig. 3: Remote kiosks reduce per-liter costs in
Dzemeni and Pokuase
DZEMENI
POKUASE
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
-
Jan.11
Feb.11
M
ar.11
Apr.11
M
ay.11
Jun.11
Jul.11
Aug.11
Main Site/Bulk Remote Kiosks
VolumeSold(L)
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
-
Jun.11
Jul.11
Aug.11
Sep.11
Oct.11
N
ov.11
Dec.11
Jan.12
Main Site/Delivery Remote Kiosks
VolumeSold(L)
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
CostperLiter(GHS)
Before
Dzemeni Pokuase
After
-33% -56%

3. 4
REMOTE KIOSKSFIELD INSIGHTS SERIES
A Cost-Effective Approach to Increasing Safe Water Consumption in Ghana
source water (since resolved), and Ghana was also experiencing
severe electricity shortages, which interfered with pumping to the
sites. In addition, remote kiosks in Obeyeyie and Oduman were
initially served only by sporadic truck delivery until the completion
of pipelines in January 2013. Impacts were therefore quite modest
in the first three months after introduction. Despite this fact,
comparing the average sales volumes in the four months prior
to introduction with the four months after introduction shows a
volume growth of roughly 60% in both communities, resulting in a
cost-per-liter reduction of 22% in Obeyeyie and 27% in Oduman.
We will continue to monitor and analyze the performance of these
sites as they mature.
What’s Next?
These findings enable us to begin to quantify the value placed on
convenience by safe water consumers. Overall, remote kiosks have
shown themselves to represent one cost-effective approach to
increasing the coverage of community-level water systems, even
where household adoption rates are already high.
Many questions remain to be answered, in areas including
optimal siting and sizing for remote kiosks, and the cost trade-offs
of remote kiosks vs. truck delivery, single standpipes or
other options.
A key priority in 2013 is to ensure the reliable collection of consumer
data (including customer counts, demographics, socioeconomics,
etc.) from all points of sale, so that future shifts in purchasing
behavior can be analyzed in greater detail. Now that remote
kiosks are operational in four communities, we are also seeking to
complete an additional round of whole-community GPS mapping
to better understand how geographical patterns of safe water use
have changed over time.
Our medium to long-term objective at these sites include 1)
expansion of safe water services into other nearby communities,
and 2) additional points of sale within each community, which may
include more remote kiosks, standpipes attached to an automatic
payment system, and over time potentially even household
connections.
Fig. 4: Increased level of sales persists one year
after introduction of remote kiosks
Fig. 5: Remote kiosks in Obeyeyie and Oduman also
lead to sales growth after three challenging months
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
-
Jan.11
M
ar.11
M
ay.11
Jul.11
Sep.11
N
ov.11
Jan.12
M
ar.12
Main Site/Bulk Remote Kiosks
VolumeSold(L)
OBEYEYIE
DZEMENI
ODUMAN
700,000
600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
200,000
100,000
-
Jun.12
Jul.12
Aug.12
Sep.12
Oct.12
N
ov.12
Dec.12
Jan.13
Main Site Remote Kiosks
VolumeSold(L)
450,000
400,000
350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
-
Jun.12
Jul.12
Aug.12
Sep.12
Oct.12
N
ov.12
Dec.12
Jan.13
Main Site Remote Kiosks
VolumeSold(L)
Lead Supporters of Safe Water Network in Ghana:
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, PepsiCo Foundation,
Newman’s Own Foundation, Kosmos Energy
This Field Insight was made possible through support from: