Getting Started
To get started, you need to create an account. Do this by going to the registration page, and then filling in your name, email address, country, and a username. Your username should contain only letters, numbers and spaces (no punctuation), and be between 4 and 15 characters long. You must provide a working email address so that we can send you your password.
Once you have your password, return to the login page, and type in your username and password. You will be taken to the My Locations page. Type in a name for the site or location where you are working, then click on the 'Add' button. Next you will see the site or location name appear as hyperlinked text. You can create as many sites or locations as you need, and they will appear here in a list. Click on the site or location name to begin using the tool.
How to Use the Community Choices Tool
A questionnaire is at the heart of the Community Choices Tool. By answering these questions, you are going through a similar kind of analysis a WASH expert would do when deciding on appropriate solution options for a certain community and location.
This prototype contains a limited number of questions related to only two types of problems: determining the most appropriate types of sanitation solutions in a rural or peri-urban area, or finding a point-of-use or household water treatment system. You can use the Sanitation Module, the Water Module, or both modules for each location you create.
In the future the actual tool, which is currently in development in West Africa, will cover other problems, such as water supply and hygiene education, as well as more comprehensive information for sanitation problems.
Saving and Sharing Your Results
After you have answered all of the questions (there are approximately 30 in the sanitation module, and 17 in the household water treatment module), click the 'Finish' button, and you will be taken to a ranked set of solutions. Your answers and the recommend solutions will automatically be saved, so you can view them when you log in again.
How to Add or Correct Information
You can go back and change your response to any one of the questions, either while answering questions or after you've calculated results. From the 'Recommended Solutions' page, click on “« Back to questionnaire” at the top of the page. Or, you can return to the Locations menu (click on 'My Locations' in the left sidebar), and reselect the site or location. Use the 'Next' and 'Back' buttons at the bottom of the questionnaire to navigate through the questions, change your answers, and finish completing and recalculating the results.
Contact the Authors
If you didn't find the help you need here, please send an email to any of the authors by clicking on their names below, and we will respond as quickly as possible.