KENYA: the “SafiSolar” solar water filter provides drinking water to 250 households
As the Kenyan government redoubles its efforts to achieve the sixth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) focused on water and health security for populations by 2030, the Kenyan start-up INNO-Neat Energy Solutions wants to provide his stone to this building. The company has designed “SafiSolar”, a solar water filter that makes water drinkable, with the potential to serve around 250 households.
INNO-Neat Energy Solutions created the “SafiSolar” solar water filter to be suitable for rural areas. Because, for the founder and CEO of the Kenyan start-up, Godfrey Katiambo, poor rural populations are faced with more serious water shortages due to the unequal distribution of the resource, as well as the implementation implementation of hydraulic projects. Thus, in Kenya, Godfrey Katiambo's solution aims to reduce this imbalance in the supply of drinking water by making surface water drinkable.
Concretely, the INNO-Neat Energy Solutions water filter eliminates contaminants such as bacteria, viruses and heavy metals, thus making the water safe for consumption. “Unlike traditional methods such as boiling water or using chlorine tablets, our solution requires only a one-time investment and offers a sustainable, cost-effective and easy-to-maintain approach,” explains founder and CEO Godfrey Katiambo . The installation is powered by solar energy to overcome the problems of power cuts.
Nearly 250 households served for each water filter
INNO-NEAT has already developed and successfully deployed three prototypes of “SafiSolar” to women's groups in western Kenya. Each installation provides on average 5 m3 of drinking water per day to around 250 households. This innovation has also earned the young company founded in 2022 one of the 10 finalists for the 2023 edition of the Ecosystem Restoration Africa program. This is an initiative managed by Village Capital, which targets low-income rural communities in urgent need of clean water.
“Over the coming years, we aim to strengthen our impact by expanding to other communities in Kenya and beyond. This expansion will be facilitated by strategic partnerships, an increase in production and permanent innovation in order to make our solution even more efficient and accessible ,” explained Godfrey Katiambo to our colleagues at Disrupt Africa newspaper on November 2, 2023.
