Sato has introduced its new handwashing solution the Sato taps. It will manufacture the first batch of the taps in the country and make the new product available for partners in September 2020. It will also ramp up the production of the taps to feed the retail channel by early 2021. Sato is an arm of Japanese Lixil Group Corporation’s social business that focuses on water, sanitation, and hygiene problems by offering affordable and easy-to-install sanitation systems to local communities around the world.
“The Covid-19 situation underscores the vast inequities in access to water, sanitation, and hygiene for households in Asia and globally. We know that washing your hands with soap is one of the effective interventions against disease transmission. By bringing Sato’s design and engineering expertise, combined with global Lixil support, we aim to accelerate this new handwashing innovation to market, making it available to households to reinforce handwashing behaviour change and to refine it for long-term offering in the Sato product portfolio.” said Erin McCusker, Sato’s vice-president & head in a press statement.
McCusker added, “According to UNICEF, 40% of the world’s population still do not have access to basic handwashing facilities at home. To address this immense challenge, Lixil has committed $1 million in line with its promise to support the commitments of development partners and others, which could impact 5 million people with improved handwashing.”
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Kelly Ann Naylor, associate director for UNICEF’s WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) team said, “In addition to providing an affordable handwashing facility to disadvantaged households through the Sato tap, Lixil’s existing partnership with UNICEF will also expand activities in handwashing and sanitation in response to Covid-19.” These activities, she added, ranging from a collection of commercial and behavioural insights to strengthen behaviour change, joint advocacy to promote hygiene programming and maximising existing public and private sector networks and supply chains to expand access to handwashing.
Underscoring the need for innovative hygiene solutions, Daigo Ishiyama, chief technology and marketing officer at Sato, said, “We believe the Sato tap will help advocate life-changing behaviour. It will promote hygiene and reinforce handwash behaviour change by mitigating risks while conserving water. Our vision is well-aligned with the Government of India’s vision and priorities for its people in promoting hygiene and advancing SDG 6 by 2030.”
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