Changing the way we think about water
AquaBot
Many people collect water from rivers or lakes. This water is highly polluted and not safe or reliable. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that 40 billion hours are spent annually collecting water.
Imagine your life without water. Imagine having to walk three miles to your neighbor’s house every time you need water, imagine if the only water available was dirty. Would that be okay? Did you know, around 2.6 billion people do not have access to clean water worldwide? That’s almost eight times the population of the United States.
Faulty Infrastructure
Over the years billions of dollars have been spent to address the water problems yet the problems still exist. There are over 50,000 dysfunctional water supply infrastructures across Africa. Many of these are failing for one simple and avoidable reason: Lack of sustainability.
Many communities within Kenya experience severe water challenges
Most available water sources tend to be unprotected shallow wells, rivers, dams, and springs. Children and adults within the communities suffer from water borne diseases, including cholera, typhoid, and amoeba. Because many of these available water sources are only seasonal, women and children travel long distances in search of water during the dry parts of the year.
- Higher Risk
In African culture, the responsibility of domestic tasks, like collecting water, falls mostly to women and children which puts them at substantially higher risk of assault during their quest for water.
broken or poorly maintained water systems
Apart from the diseases coming from contaminated water sources, there are also substantial problems with water shortages caused by broken or poorly maintained water systems.
Often when a good water source, like a well, is located within a rural community, it becomes disfunctional because no one in the surrounding area has the expertise or finances to maintain or repair the system. A good management system is rarely put in place.
What if people paid for their water?
It is a common misconception that all communities in developing countries are completely poor. However, in sub-Saharan Africa between 75% and 91% of people own a cell phone and in Kenya specifically, people spend an average of $15.00 every month on phone services. Many can afford critical services, like phones, electricity, and in this case, water. What they do not have is the financial ability to spend thousands of dollars up front on major infrastructure.
what are the costs of collecting water that is contaminated and hard to reach?
- In many cases people are already paying for their water in one form or another.
- When people drink dirty water, they become sick. This comes with direct expenses like medication and hospital bills, and indirect expenses like the inability to work or attend school.
- To kill bacteria, some people use wood or charcoal to boil their water. In many areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, deforestation has become such a huge problem that the entire ecosystem has changed.
- In Sub-Saharan Africa, many hours are spent each day collecting water. This means that women are not able to pursue income generating activities and children are not able to attend school.
There are three key components needed
Technology
Community
Maintenance
There is a huge need to address the challenges of providing a clean, accessible, and sustainable water supply to rural communities throughout Kenya. Therefore, the project presented here has been identified as a solution, which addresses the challenges that many African communities experience.
Current Water Development Challenges:
Which Ultimately Leads To
FAILURE
The Solution = AquaBot
High Quality
Smart Delivery
Easy Payment
The AquaBot provides push button operation, easily dispensing an accurate amount of water to each user at an affordable rate which benefits the community and sustains the operation of the system for many years into the future. Each AquaBot is placed in a location that benefits the maximum number of people and is installed in conjunction with a deep and properly drilled well, ensuring a constant supply of water.
Construction AND Function
The AquaBot is constructed with a tower and platform supporting a water storage tank. This storage tank supplies water to the community taps located at the base of the AquaBot. Solar panels are mounted at the top of the tower to ensure security and maximum exposure to the sun. Sustainability is at the core of this system. The AquaBot is integrated with a metered token system. Each community member who wishes to use the water is supplied with an electronic token that activates the water taps. No caretaker needs to be present for people to have access to the water.
Money collected from the AquaBot is automatically deposited into a Management Fund Account. This money is available for maintaining and repairing the system, as well as providing funds to construct more AquaBots.
Local Community Engagement
- At the beginning of each project, we engage the local community leadership and community health volunteers. It is important that the community understands what we are coming to do and what the purpose of the project is.
- Many communities can afford to pay the small fee for their water, this is established by conducting a survey in each community. We conduct a comprehensive baseline survey before any site is chosen for an AquaBot.
Training the Community Health Volunteers (CHV’s)
CHV’s are the ambassadors of health within the community. They help build awareness about the importance of clean water and the AquaBot solution. This happens before the project is started and after it is finished to encourage community members to come use the water.
Each AquaBot is equipped with a clean water system and the unique payment collection system.
After completing the construction phase it’s time to launch the project
- Onboarding the mobile management system
- Training the CHV’s how to use the system so they can teach community members
- Public opening and ribbon cutting
- Ongoing WASH sensitization
monitored from anywhere in the world!
The AquaBot is even under remote surveillance that can be monitored from anywhere in the world!
This is a screen shot from the live video image
- Appropriate Technology
- Community Participation
- Maintenance Support
- SUCCESS
- Appropriate Technology
- Community Participation
- Maintenance Support
- SUCCESS
EAI is bridging the gap between the need and the supply through our diverse capacity in services, water products, and specialty programs like the AquaBot.
