According to a 2015 report from the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.8 billion people around the world use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces.
While tap water is unsafe, water purification systems and bottled water are not affordable for everyone either.
James Steere and Kate Thiers Steere founded I-Drop Water as an alternative solution to make safe drinking water affordable and accessible for people in South Africa and the African continent.
Since its founding in 2015, I-Drop has partnered with grocery store owners in four African countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Ghana) to install over 60 filtration systems and has already sold over half a million litres of safe drinking water.
I-Drop purification systems are installed in any grocery store with access to a running tap, at no cost to the shop owner. Customers can then purchase safe drinking water for just R1 (10 Singapore cents) per litre – an approximate 80 per cent discount on bottled water. At the end of each month, I-Drop splits the profit from water sales evenly with the shop owner.
The I-Drop filtration system is just as effective and more cost-efficient than the bottled water industry because of three major components: the filter itself, cellular networks and environmental sustainability.
The I-Drop system’s water filter, which is manufactured in the United States, uses a nano-carbon configuration to filter out viruses, bacteria, and cysts while retaining the water’s minerals.
With the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) technology that connects each machine to the I-Drop platform, Thiers Steere is typically able to address any technical problems remotely via the machine’s cellular-based platform and the data she receives from it.
While running on solar power is one of I-Drop’s environmental benefits, the project also reduces plastic consumption. Consumers bring their own container or purchase a reusable container instead of buying individual water bottles.
Ultimately, I-Drop aims to be an environmentally friendly, affordable alternative to the bottled water industry and a practical solution to deteriorating water infrastructure.
Read more here.
Source: The Straits Times, 24 June 2017