About the challenge

Organization
Forthemany
Website

Safe drinking water is recognised by the United Nations as a universal human right, yet a staggering 785 million people still lack basic access to it. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause nearly half a million diarrhoeal deaths each year, most of whom are children under the age of five in developing countries. This results in about 2,200 deaths every single day. 

Household water treatment can reduce the risk of diarrhoeal disease by as much as 61% when effective treatment methods are used correctly and consistently by populations at risk of water-borne disease. But to date, such water filters pose challenges in their use as they are often too complicated to operate and clean and can also pose a recontamination risk when storing water in an unclean container.

About the solution

Studio Forthemany’s JERRY aims to tackle the global issue of access to safe drinking water by addressing the issue at point-of-use, with usability at the heart of the design.

JERRY is a self-cleaning water filter made specifically to fit on all standard-sized jerry cans to provide safe drinking water for those without access to it. This product enables users to pump filtered drinking water directly from a jerry can, which are widely used for water transport and storage. This water filter provides an inexpensive solution that is simple to install, operate and maintain without any training, encouraging users to treat their drinking water on a daily basis.

Once connected to a jerry can, the product functions as a filter and a tap for drinking water. The design contains two filters, eliminating over 99.999% of bacteria and parasites and over 99.9% of viruses from the water. A glass is filled in only two pump strokes with little force, allowing young children and the elderly to filter water with ease. With each pump stroke, the filter is cleaned automatically, resulting in a maintenance-free water filter that is simple to use on a daily basis for all drinking water needs.

As this product can be transported in bulk and can be deployed without any required training, JERRY provides a solution in the context of both humanitarian and disaster responses where the water supply is suddenly interrupted (for example during flooding or earthquakes) and in areas where no permanent water infrastructure is present (refugee camps).