The soap has been distributed free of charge to some villagers. Now, while doing laundry as they always have, women clean the river as well as their clothes. By embedding the purifying agent into a collective habit, decontamination becomes routine and women can protect their environment without giving up an important social and cultural tradition — at least if the soap is available at similar prices to chemical detergents.
Because 159 million people worldwide drink untreated water from surface water sources, Andea is making AWA's formula freely available to government agencies, environmental organizations and detergent manufacturers.