Solvatten is a Swedish invention and a social enterprise making portable solar powered jerry cans for heating and treating water.
It’s a combination of portable water treatment and water heater system and it uses UV, built-in turbulence, and filtration to clean water on a household level. All that is needed is sunlight. This way it gives people health and better lives through clean and heated water, and reduces deforestation as water is treated without the need for cooking over fire.
Since 2018 we at Greencarrier provide Solvatten with logistical support that enables their water heaters and treaters to reach needing families in Africa. During 2022 this support will be handled by our logistics experts within Hecksher (https://hecksher.com/). In addition to this we have donated several Solvatten units to Tharaka in Kenya.
This is an update from this project.
Kenya in times of climate change
Deforestation has long been a problem in Kenya. Between 2001 and 2020, Kenya lost 361 kha of trees, corresponding to 176 Mt of CO2 emissions, which can be compared with the annual emissions from all of Europe’s food waste.
Many of Kenya’s rural communities depend on firewood to heat their homes and cook food. Not only has this exacerbated climate change, it has also had a number of other devastating effects, including soil erosion, increased floods and dramatically reduced access to fresh water during droughts.
41% of Kenya’s population does not have access to clean drinking water. The Covid 19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of access to clean water, hygiene and water resource management as an investment in preventing and controlling diseases. Access to clean and warm water at home is a first step in reaching real change.
Collaboration enables help to many
– Thanks to Greencarrier’s support, we have managed to reach some of the most vulnerable families in Tharaka and provide access to safe and hot water from Solvatten, for many years ahead. This contributes to improved health and well-being, and in the same time it enables saving of trees, more secure self-providence and resilient communities. Says Petra Wadström, founder of Solvatten.
Read more about our partnership here.
A sunshine story from Tharaka
The Marsabit area, located in the northern part of Kenya, has been particularly exposed to the drought that has hit the country for the past two years. Solvatten’s partner, ChildFund Kenya, testifies that more people have ended up in poverty as small-scale agriculture and animal husbandry have been hampered by water shortages.
Jibril is a three-year-old happy and playful boy who lives in Maikona, a village in the countryside of Marsabit, with his father, mother, grandmother and sister. The family supports itself on 3 goats. They say that the recent past has been difficult due to drought and poor livestock market. The family picks up water from a shallow well or school borehole.
Jibril’s mother, Bokayo, says that Solvatten has been a great help to the family. She usually cleans 10-30 liters of water per day which is used for tea, cooking, bathing the children, meeting the family’s need for drinking water and for hand washing. She saves the purified water in another container so that the family will always have access to clean water.
The Greencarrier Spirit – combining business with giving back
This is one of Greencarrier’s many initiatives within Greencarrier Spirit. We contribute directly to Solvatten’s vision of a world where everyone can live a healthy and worthy life and we get to combine our business knowledge with our social and environmental goals.
This exemplifies just what the Greencarrier Spirit is about. Read more here.
And you can also read more stories from Solvatten and Kenya in this project update: Solvatten Greencarrier Kenya 2022
All photos: Solvatten
