Paying too much for drinking water? Here is what you can do
Guido van Hofwegen and his wife Lieselotte Heederik experienced how difficult it is to get drinking water when they moved to Indonesia to help in the reconstruction after the devastating Tsunami of 2014. Coming from the Netherlands they were used to drink water from the tap directly.
However, in South East Asia, less than 5% of the population has access to safe drinking water from the tap - around 600 million people do not have access to safe drinking water in their homes.
In Myanmar the numbers are even less, as shown by a study of the WHO only 4% of the population has access to (mostly undrinkable) piped water. Huge amounts of water are contaminated, for example with feces. This can lead to illness, low drinking water quality is one of the reasons why diarrhea is still a major cause of death. To overcome the bad quality and kill the bacteria in the water, most people boil their water before drinking it. "Boiling is hardly a solution", says Guido. "My well water for instance is cloudy and yellowish so even after boiling it just looks dirty".
Or people rely on drinking bottled water. Buying water is expensive though: the big 19L bottles of water cost at least 1500Kyat. On yearly basis this means that a family easily spends huge amounts to drinking water, over 200,000Kyat.
"Being engineers we do not want to accept the status quo", says Guido." We knew that it is technically possible to have access to safe drinking water right in our home in Asia as well. So we started working on solutions to have a free flow of water just like in Europe", Guido continues.
Guido and Lisa decided to make it their mission to provide safe drinking water to everybody, starting in South-East Asia. "That is why we founded Nazava Water Filters Indonesia in 2009. With help from Delft University we designed the Nazava water filter that can treat tap, well, rain and surface water so it becomes safe to drink without the need of boiling or buying water."
So far, the award-winning enterprise has served over 125,000 families across the world, providing 600 thousand people with access to safe drinking water.
The Nazava® ceramic water filters purify your water in three steps: first dirt and bacteria are filtered out by the ceramic membrane, second bacteria and other micro-organisms are killed by nano-silver, finally activated carbon in the filter improves taste and makes your water taste fresh! The ceramic water filter can filter up to 7000 litters of water. This equals 350 of the 19L water-cooler bottles. This means that a family will not have to purchase water for 2-3 years depending on the water quality of the water they put in the filter. The water filters Nazava uses have been tested in many laboratories worldwide including the WHO.
Nazava water filters cost 47,000 Kyat. In Indonesia, where the company started, Guido has been working a lot with Micro Finance Institutes. In that way consumers can purchase the filters in instalments as low as 1300Kyat per week. Independent studies from e.g. Santa Clara University in California show that the impact of Nazava water filters is large. Households safe around 85USD per year, as well as a lot of time because they do not have to boil or purchase water anymore.
Nazava' s water filters are made using Dutch technology and are manufactured in Indonesia and currently sold mainly in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Lieselotte and Guido see Myanmar as a key market for their product. "Myanmar is one of the largest countries in ASEAN and access to drinking water is a big challenge. Therefore, we are sure our products a great fit for the market."
Nazava is looking to expand in ASEAN countries and is is looking for partners in Myanmar. Interested parties can contact the Water Agency This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +6281360446295 through WhatsApp or Viber.
In the first week of March Guido, co-founder and director of Nazava will visit Yangon from the Netherlands in order to meet potential distributors for his product. During his visit, he would like to meet with parties who have interest in the Nazava water filter. We kindly invite to join us for a product presentation and introduction to Mr van Hofwegen.
The presentation will take place on:
Place: Impact Hub YMG, Building C8, Room 202, RoyalTowers, Yawmingyi Ward, Dagon. (Behind Thamada Cinema)
Date: Monday 4th March 2019
Time: 10.00am to 11.00am
Mr van Hofwegen will demonstrate the water filter, specific the technical details and will explain about the possible usage. In addition to this presentation, he will be available for individual meetings on the same day or later in the week.
Please let us know if you are interested to attend by filling this FORM or sending a message to 09976307032. Should you be interested to speak to Mr van Hofwegen separately, please contact us in order to set up a meeting.
