On Monday April 29th, we spoke with Misereor in Aachen about solar desalination. They have a lot of experience in this topic. We are glad about the knowledge exchange.
Autor: Niclas Dehmel
Upcoming projects in Colombia and Iraq
On March 20th and 21th, we did a workshop with the Engineers without borders in Luxembourg. They want to install approx. 50 solar desalination modules on an island in Colombia. A few days later, we presented the technology to the national Water-Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) cluster of Iraq. Together with the Iraq Response Innovation Lab, we want to start a solar desalination project in Southern Iraq and Northern Iraq.
Intensive entrepreneurship and technology workshop in Erbil
These young entrepreneurs from Kurdistan joined our intensive workshop on solar distillation. The workshop consisted of five days and we spoke about business planning, marketing and the technology. Some participants of the workshop are planning to setup a few solar distillation modules in a small village in Kurdistan by themselves. This is the beginning of solar distillation in Iraq, that could create jobs in the private industry and improve the drinking water supply.
Thanks for the organization by the Bavarian Entrepreneurship and Advanced Training Program and that we could do this event in the Iraq Response Innovation Lab. The cooperation with these two organizations is amazing!
Mentors
On January 13th 2019 we presented our business model. The EXIST scholarship is going to end in two months. Thanks for the great support from the startup campus in Deggendorf, especially to Prof. Thomas Geiß, Mr. Christian Schläger and to our mentor Prof. Robert Mnich.
Kenya Skills Show
On February 8th 2019, we presented our desalination module at the Kenya Skills Show 2019 in Nairobi. There we shared the stand with the Don Bosco Schools from Nairobi and Makuyu. We had interesting talks and made new contacts which may evolve into future projects. David from Don Bosco Technical School Makuyu will represent us today and tomorrow, feel free to visit our stand. Karibu!
Addressing water salinity and contamination in Iraq
In Iraq approximately 4 million people, especially in the south and central Iraq, suffer from water salinity and contamination in the summer. Therefore, Raphael from aquaba visited northern Iraq in January. Now we develop a project to manufacture and distribute the solar desalination modules locally in Iraq together with Oxfam Iraq, the University of Kurdistan Hewler, Alaq Annajah Company and other organizations/companies. Two modules were manufactured locally and setup at the Iraq Response Innovation Lab and at the University of Kurdistan Hewler.
Good start in Erbil
On January 6th and 9th 2019 Raphael Wagensonner visited the University of Kurdistan Hewler in Erbil, Iraq. The European Training and Technology Center (ETTC) in Erbil helped us find a manufacturer of stainless steel products. In just a few hours this stainless steel company produced two solar water desalination modules. There was also a successful meeting with the German chamber of commerce in Erbil. The University of Kurdistan Hewler, the ETTC, the manufacturer and the German chamber of commerce are great hosts. Thank you for the meetings.
Meeting with Mr. Thomas Erndl, Member of the Bundestag
Mr. Thomas Erndl is a member of the Bundestag and a member of the foreign office committee. In this committee he is the correspondent of the East Africa region. Further he is the vice chairman of the foreign culture and education policy comittee.
On December 6th 2018 he came to our office in Deggendorf. We showed him our solar desalination modules. Christoph Dobler and Niclas Dehmel spoke with him about the pilot project in Pundamilia and Makuyu in Kenya. Raphael Wagensonner presented our financing plan and lead a discussion about the next steps. Mr. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert Mnich contributed with his professional background to this meeting.
Mr. Thomas Erndl said: „aquaba is a great project. The solar desalination technology contributes to the drinking water supply on site. I help aquaba from now on.“
Mission complete in Pundamilia, Kenya
December 1th, 2018: During the last three days we dug a trench for the salt water supply (despite the stony ground), connected all the tubes for salt and fresh water and adjusted the panels straight. This was possible thanks to the help of Bernard, Boniface, David, Harisson and Laurence. We were happy to present the final setup to Sister Sushma today.
modules in Pundamilia, Kenya
November 28th, 2018: Today we started putting up our modules in Pundamilia. During the next days the pipes and other equipment will follow. Stay tuned!