Our friends at Jibu were featured in an article on The Guardian‘s website about the work they are doing in Africa to create entrepreneurship opportunities that will make clean water much more affordable and accessible in Uganda, Rwanda and many other countries. Jibu uses Healing Water’s as its sole provider of water filtration systems, using our Solar Pure system.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Colorado Springs feels like a long way from the poor neighborhoods of Kampala, in Uganda, and Kigali, in Rwanda. But that’s nothing compared to the gap between a small father-and-son business, and the overwhelming clean water problems in East Africa.
But Randy Welsch, 59, and his son Galen, 28, are not ones to balk at a challenge.Jibu, the Colorado-based business that they cofounded in 2012, set itself the target of helping 4 million people gain access to clean drinking water in five years. (“Jibu” means “solution” in Swahili.)
The problem of unsafe water is not new. About 1 in 9 people worldwide are forced to drink potentially bacteria-ridden water every day, leading to an estimated 3.4 million related deaths every year.
Efforts to solve the problem aren’t new either. In 2014, USAID alone spent $361m on water supply, sanitation and hygiene programs, 86.5% of which was directed to Africa and Asia.
Yet the problem persists. Up to half of all water supply projects fail within two to five years, representing a waste of $1.2bn to $1.5bn in aid funding over the last 20 years, according to research cited by the United Nations. The Welsch father-and-son team feels a new, more business-based approach is needed.
Please click here to read the full article written by Oliver Balch.