While industrialization has been blamed for contributing immensely to greenhouse gases, technology has come to the rescue and residents of Jimbo in Kenya’s South Coast have become part of the global plan to salvage the environment.
Jimbo is not an ordinary village. From its unique location just at the tip of the Kenyan border with Tanzania, this is a classic fishing village, specializing in sardines involving mainly women in the trade.
A walk across the village one does not fail to notice black gadgets in almost every homestead outside in the scorching sun. A closer look reveals a black container filled to the brim with water for heating and treating.
This is the Solvatten kit, a combined portable water treatment and water heating system that has been designed for off-grid household use mainly in the developing world. It is an easy, innovative solution that provides access to clean, hot water to people worldwide.
According to PetraWadstrom, the founder and innovator of Solvatten water purifiers Petra from Sweden, Solvatten AB, the company that manufactures the kits has implemented 45 projects in over 20 countries since 2010, with high levels of uptake and acceptability.
The Solvatten technology and projects currently serve nearly 600,000 people globally.
Vulnerable
Jimbo is one of the areas in Kenya and the world that have joined the long list of beneficiaries of this game-changing technology with the sole aim of helping vulnerable communities without reliable access to clean and safe water.
Hamida Ali Abubakar, a mother of two and living with her two elderly parents is one of the beneficiaries of this technology. She is one of the women fisher folks who benefitted from training conducted by Community Action for Nature Conservation (CANCO) in Jimbo on how to use the kits. CANCO is the organization that is coordinating the Solvatten project in Kwale and TaitaTaveta Counties.
Hamida is one among many women in Jimbo using the kits and have very interesting experiences to share. They got the opportunity to meet face to face with the founder and innovator of the kits who was on a tour of Kenya to monitor and evaluate the project that carries with it several benefits ranging from health to environment.
Through their experience with the kits, Hamida says, “On a bright sunny day, it takes about two hours of intense heat to boil 10 litres of water and on average I can do about six hours with 30 litres of clean and safe water.”
Hamida says she preserves the water in a flask and can be used the following morning to bathe the children as they prepare to go to school.
This is the same story for Mwanamtama Mohamed Bii, the mother of four school going children.
“This is a very unique technology that has simplified our lives, reducing the time and energy spent on heating water. I use the purified water for drinking, cooking and bathing,” she said.
Renewable energy
Petra has travelled a journey of research from 2002 up to 2011 when she started mass production of the game changing Solvatten kits.
“As a mother, watching other women going through serious difficulties in accessing clean and safe drinking water especially in developing countries got me thinking and using my background in biochemistry and DNA research started this project. In Indonesia, for instance, my travels took me to see the real poverty and women and children were bearing the brunt of these hardships. The biggest problem was water.
“After intensive research, I was able to make the first prototype in Stockholm in 2002. It was a long process testing water from different sources in different parts of the world such as Nepal and Bungoma in Kenya,” said Petra in Jimbo.
She says Solvatten technology has come at a time when the earth is in a major climate crisis.
“Renewable energy should be the number one source for household drinking water and heating water everywhere. We do our part by providing Solvatten kits to off-grid, low-grid settlements, through partnerships with NGO’s, health clinics and with the mechanisms of carbon finance.
“We give Swedish companies the opportunity to offset carbon emissions by purchasing high quality carbon credits. As the Solvatten kit reduces the use of biomass by more than 50%, it mitigates climate pollution such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Also, the reduced dependence on biomass enables higher preservation of trees and ecosystem services, without claiming land areas. Users of Solvatten will hence help protect, restore and promote sustainable use of Kenya’s ecosystems while slowing down biodiversity loss,” said Petra.
Furthermore, she said the Solvatten-kit can help build resilience within communities especially at high risk of the effects of climate change and save lives. Reduced outbreaks from water and hygiene related diseases has a positive impact on a country’s health including increased life expectancy and decreased child mortality.
CANCO’s partnership at Jimbo entails improved access to safe water at household level but more importantly access to safe water that can be used in the processing and value-addition of fish – largely sardines.
“Matters of fish quality (quality control and quality assurance) require good hygiene and sanitation. Clean and safe water is an important input in ensuring that the quality and safety of fish is improved or not compromised.
“This in turn will enhance the marketability of the sardines as it is a requirement by Kenya fisheries Service, Fish Marketing Authority, Kenya Bureau of Standards and Export Promotion Council,” said Hadley Becha, CANCO Executive Director.
“We are happy to start this Solvatten project in Jimbo. It is a strong community doing vital advocacy work. However, access to clean water is scarce, and people still depend on charcoal and firewood to make water safe. This technology will improve many people’s lives and mitigate climate change simultaneously”, said Becha.
“As you are aware, the mortality rate and deaths of children under five years old is high in most of those counties with low access to safe water. As such, Solvatten can contribute to reducing this. It will also improve public health particularly of women and children as the technology is smokeless.
“One key component of this technology is that it uses solar to treat and heat the water. This increases communities’ access to affordable, reliable renewable and clean energy. Through this technology, communities will use less or little wood fuel and charcoal. As such it will not only protect the vegetation cover and woodlands and increase biodiversity, the Solvatten technology is a climate action technology as it will reduce the greenhouse gases which cause global warming and climate change,” he said.
How Solvatten kit works
It is well-documented that solar energy can be an effective method of cleaning contaminated water. The ultraviolet (UV) rays produced by sunlight destroys the formation of DNA linkages in microorganisms, preventing them from reproducing and rendering them harmless. If you also factor in the sun’s ability to rapidly heat water and you have Solvatten’s recipe for success.
Solvatten makes water safe and hot — up to 75°C/167°F. Water at this temperature has been freed of microorganisms and is perfect for a number of household and hygiene purposes including cooking, hand washing, bathing, and cleaning. Once the water has been purified, an indicator tells the user when it is complete. The water will cool down quickly in the shade in order to be used as drinking water. Solvatten can be used on partly cloudy days, but not during heavy rain or thick cloud cover.
