Sustainable option for affordable safe drinking water

We aim to make clean drinking water accessible to everyone by providing an entrepreneurial solution. Your help is crucial!

We are Kasper, Naomi, Floor and Thomas. In November, we are going to Sengerema, Tanzania for 3 months, for our bachelor. Floor is a third year Moleculair Science student, Naomi is a third year Psychology student, and Kasper and Thomas are third year Technology, Policy and Management students.

Sengerema is a city located in Tanzania, close to the Victoria lake, in the upper part of Tanzania. Basic health services are not always closely available for everyone. For instance, to have access to safe drinking water people have to travel a significant amount of time to collect safe water. 

We will be located at Elabs Institute for Health and Allied Sciences. Elabs is a clinical doctor's school, located in Sengerema Tanzania. In Sengerema tap water is not always safe to drink, and people get sick many times a year. The tap water is not reliable either, as it shuts off for multiple hours a day. Bottled water is available as a safe drinking water source, but it is very unsustainable: for a lot of residents this is too expensive and the empty bottles cause a lot of pollution.

Last year Tam Maji was installed on the grounds of Elabs, a system that provides clean drinking water to the students for a fraction of the price of bottled water. It consists of a tank for storage, therefore, when the water shuts off Tam Maji can keep working for a few days. Furthermore it has a water filter and a simple payment system. The students at Elabs are very happy with the system and do not get sick from unsafe water anymore. However, only a small part of the community is benefitting from Tam Maji: the students at the school and some of the neighbours.

Here we see a sustainable business opportunity: installing Tam Maji at other schools or institutions in Sengerema. Together with the students of Elabs we will be setting up an entrepreneurial business with the aim of bringing Tam Maji, therefore cheap clean drinking water, to more people in the community. This will then form a sustainable form of income for the students as well. 

In case of any questions, feel free to contact us:

K.W.braad@student.tudelft.nl

N.W.wassink@student.tudelft.nl

f.t.holleman@student.tudelft.nl