About Project Sammaan
Project Sammaan provides a new, holistically reimagined model for urban slum sanitation facilities in India.
- Private Philanthropy provides the resources to fund innovation with scale as the primary goal.
- Government ownership and funding enables adequate infrastructure, community engagement, and utilities’ access.
- The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) rigorously evaluates facility viability and effectiveness through Randomized Control Trials (RCTs).
- Quicksand utilizes its user-centered design principles to ensure the facilities meet end-user needs and are readily adopted by communities.
The Potty Project
Project Sammaan was born out of the research Quicksand undertook as part of the Potty Project, an in-depth design research study focused on understanding three things:
- The end-user experience at community toilet facilities within urban slums in India.
- End-user perceptions, attitudes, and mental models around sanitation and hygiene.
- The
supply side
aspects of community sanitation in slums including things such as pricing, operations & maintenance, caretaking, and business models.