Jua Kali Dishwasher

This short project took place during a course in frugal design at Chalmers University of Technology. The course brought us together with a contact in Kisumu, Kenya. Through this contact we were provided with data on the context, material resources and infrastructures in Kisumu.

One issue that was brought up regarded the dishwashing and handling of grey water at the food kiosks in Kibuye market. These kiosks (Kibanda) contain a kitchen, seating, facilities for washing your hands and a station out back (header image) where employees wash the dishes. The kiosks are set up each morning and packed up again each night leaving an empty shack behind.

Currently, dishes are washed on the ground and the resulting grey water is tossed out. According to the contact in situ, the situation is un-ergonomic and messy.

Project team members:

Carl Wingren Bergman

Changjie Huang

Neel Kachhawah

To adress this trivial yet important problem in a frugal manner, the local availability of materials, craftsmanship skills and infrastructure were taken into account. This heavily influenced the proposed design.

One of the first mock-ups consisted of a mobile washing/drying station that would connect to a bike or be pushed by hand. It was however made apparent that the quantities of equipment and utensils that needed transporting would require greater carrying capacity, not only suited to carry the dishwashing solution itself.

The local and informal sector of craftsmen, called Jua Kali gave inspiration with their sheet metal expertise and existing wheel barrow production.

The wheel barrow design and sheet metal competencies, combined with an existing infrastructure of water transportation using jerry cans resulted in the Jua Kali Dishwasher concept.

The Jua Kali Dishwasher is intended to carry any equipment necessary to the place of business. Once unloaded, what was previously a transport solution transforms into a more ergonomic dishwashing and drying station, allowing grey water to be collected, filtered from food particles and used for secondary cleaning or disposed of in a manner that does not cause a mess, eg. composting.

I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity

— OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

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