Ecofiltro - Selling Water Filters in Mexico and Central America: success reached by failing fast!
Ecofiltro is a social enterprise that set a goal in 2010 of reaching 1 million families in rural Guatemala with a clean water solution by the year 2020. A cross subsidy strategy was setup whereby urban filters were used to subsidize rural sales. From the beginning, the rural poor were viewed as potential customers as opposed to objects of pity. A low price point was set to make the water filters very attractive by having a 3 month or less payback. The strategy started with a focus on community entrepreneurs as primary sales agents and has evolved to making schools in the countryside the main channel to selling filters to parents of school children. Financing models were setup and tweaked and today Ecofiltro has reached over 250,000 paying customers in rural Guatemala. The model is now being exported to Mexico and the rest of Central America.
Ecofiltro - Selling Water Filters in Mexico and Central America: success reached by failing fast!
Ecofiltro is a social enterprise that set a goal in 2010 of reaching 1 million families in rural Guatemala with a clean water solution by the year 2020. A cross subsidy strategy was setup whereby urban filters were used to subsidize rural sales. From the beginning, the rural poor were viewed as potential customers as opposed to objects of pity. A low price point was set to make the water filters very attractive by having a 3 month or less payback. The strategy started with a focus on community entrepreneurs as primary sales agents and has evolved to making schools in the countryside the main channel to selling filters to parents of school children. Financing models were setup and tweaked and today Ecofiltro has reached over 250,000 paying customers in rural Guatemala. The model is now being exported to Mexico and the rest of Central America.
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CAWST is a Canadian charity and licensed engineering firm. We address the global need for safe drinking water and sanitation by building local knowledge and skills on household solutions people can implement themselves.
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Development of this website and creation of collections of emergency themed tools on Water Treatment, Water Quality Testing, Behavior Change and Sanitation funded by Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance - USAID.
This project is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
