Collaboration with Asia Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)

Introduction

As large cities grow, populations starts to spread along coastlines thereby resulting in flood-prone rivers and fault lines as well as increased emissions. Therefore Asia, being a populous continent as well as having a large proportion of developing countries is particularly susceptible to natural disasters. It has also been shown that developing countries shown the largest increase in the number of natural disasters, a total increment of 142%. Hence, the Asia Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) initiated a programme called Urban Disaster Risk Management (UDRM).

Collaboration with ADPC through Urban Disaster Risk Management (UDRM)

UDRM aims to "manage and enhance the capacity of cities to reduce disaster risk in an atmosphere of sustainable development, while enhancing the quality of life of urban populations". The UDRM's vision and mission which is to prevent and/ or reduce the natural disaster vulnerability and to educate people to increase their awareness on mitigation methods coincide with our aims.

Hence, collaboration with the UDRM will not only accentuate both of our aims but it will also allow us to reach our goals of providing aid to those victims of disaster stricken areas in a more effective manner.

Product Techical Information

Our product supplies both water and electricy. It uses reverse osmosis mechanism to produce up to 5 m³ volume of clean water. 

The machine itself consumes 2.5kW for 8 hours a day, and it has 3 means to generate electricity - through equipped diesel generator, wind turbine, and/or solar panel. The diesel generator produces electricity at a rate of 40kW. And wind turbine produces 10kW of electricity at peak. The power of electricity produced by the solar panel is dependant on the weather. The machine generates electricity primarily through the diesel generator, and it will harvest the wind and solar energy in the surrounding environment if the curcumstance allows.

Aftermath of Natural Disasters

Figure 1. Impacts of Natural Disasters, 1999-2003

Source: Larson (2004) derived from General Directorate for Disaster Relief & Prevention Database
Note; Data does not include 1999 Armenia earthquake

The highlighted point in figure 1 shows that there is a significant number of water supply systems which are affected as an aftermath of natural disasters. Without a source of uncontaminated water, the victims' likelihood of survival will be greatly reduced.

However, if our product were to be deployed if such an instance were to be brought forth, the victims would not only have potable water to drink before the rescue teams arrive but also electricity to enable them to power appliances in which they can call for help. This will thus increase the survivor rate.

To look in the detail how disaster can affect the water supply system in a region, we can take flood as an example (as it is the kind of disaster that occurs the most in China and India in the last 10 years) and see its impact on the drinking water and sevarage system, as summarized by Pan American Health Organization:

• Total or partial destruction of intakes located in rivers or ravines;
  

• Sedimentation, resulting in silting up of components;
  

• Loss of intakes because of changes in the course of rivers;
  

• Breaks where exposed pipe crosses ravines and/or rivers;
  

• Breaks in distribution pipelines and connections in coastal areas as a result of wave action, and in areas adjacent to water channels;

•  Contamination of the watershed;
  

• Damage to pumping equipment;
  

• Indirect impacts such as the interruption of electricity and communications, and road blockages.

Source:  Natural Disaster Mitigation
in Drinking Water and
Sewerage Systems
Guidelines for Vulnerability Analysis
by Pan American Health Organization

Target Market Segmentation

Our target market segmentation begins here. In the previous entry, we have identified two of our main markets, Asia and the Americas. Now with information displayed below, we are able to begin further dissection of the target market.

Figure 1. Top 10 Countries Most Hit By Natural Disasters in 2005

As presented in Figure 1, the countries most hit by natural disasters are mostly situated in Asia. The number one country with the most occurrences of natural disasters is China, a country which experiences multiple floods each year. An explanation for this occurrence would be that when large cities grow, populations spread along coastlines, flood-prone rivers and fault lines, increasing the likelihood of a potential flood. With water surrounding the area, it will not take long for water borne diseases to set in, thereby increasing the fatality rate. In 2006, China was hit by the worst drought in the last 50 years, causing at least 18 million people did not 
have enough access to drinking water. 

This leads us to a case study in Bangladesh. Despite preparing themselves for the monsoon season in 2004, 161 residents of Bangladesh died of a water borne disease due to the contaminated water surrounding them. If there was a source of potable water accessible to them, there would not have been so many unnecessary loss of lives.

Also, India which is the second country most hit by natural disasters, mostly flood caused by monsoon season in the last 10 years. 

Hence, our target market group is now further segmented to these top 10 countries with our main efforts focused on China and India.

Identifying Target Market ( with reference to World Wide Disaster Occurrences Rate)

Since our product is primarily for disaster response, we had to find out the statistics of world wide disaster occurrences over the past century so that we can know whether the frequency of disaster around the world is high enough for the business to be sustainable.
We also identify which parts of the world have more disasters than the others so as to allow us to focus on a specific market group.

Figure 1. Number of natural disasters: by origin
(1900-2005, by decades*)





Hydro-meteorological disasters: including floods and wave surges, storms, droughts and related disasters (extreme temperatures and forest/scrub fires), and landslides & avalanches;
Geophysical disasters: divided into earthquakes & tsunamis and volcanic eruptions;
Biological disasters: covering epidemics and insect infestations.


Figure 2. Distribution in percentage of natural disasters: by origin
(1900-2005, by decades*)



Figure 3. Number of natural disasters by type
1970-2005






Flood, wind storm, drought and related disasters, and epidemic

have an increasing trend through out the years.

Figure 4. Distribution in percentage of natural disasters by type
1991-2005



Figure 5. Number of natural disasters by type: regional distribution
1991-2005




Figure 6. World distribution of disasters by type
1991-2005




Figure 7. World distribution of disasters by origin
1991 - 2005



As we can see, flood and windstorm constitutes the majority of the
disasters in the world.


Figure 8. Regional distribution of natural disasters by origin
1991 - 2005



Figure 9. Natural disaster occurrence by type:

Comparison 2004-2005




Source of data: EM-DAT : The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database.
http://www.em-dat.net, UCL - Brussels, Belgium

This information affirmed the vast opportunity that our product has in the market. As shown in Figure 1, the number of natural disasters increased exponentially since 1950 and remained relatively constant at 2700 occurrences a year since 2000.

In Figure 8, it shows that not only is there the highest number of occurrences of hydrometeorological disasters in Asia, there is also the highest number of geological disasters in this region too. The continent with the next highest disasters occurrences is the Americas. Hence, our target market is primarily Asia and the Americas.

We can see that the