On an otherwise reasonable evening in July, over 600 people packed an auditorium in Boulder, Colorado, for the culmination of the 2015 Unreasonable Institute. They came to watch 12 ventures take the stage and present their solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.
The entrepreneur in this video is Marten Susebeek of Susteq.
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What urgent need do you address?
There is a big problem with water access in Kenya. About 40% of water pumps break down prematurely with no sustainable maintenance system in place to fix them. When this happens, girls and women often have to walk for an entire day to fetch water, and it’s often not good quality. This detracts from time to work and study. Because access to clean drinking water is an essential human need, people living in these rural communities are willing to pay for safe and reliable water access. Susteq has created a way to improve water access by engaging local entrepreneurs through a sustainable business model.
What solution do you propose?
Everyone has a right to reliable water access. Tweet This Quote
Susteq believes that everyone has a right to reliable water access. We help organizations with the installation of prepaid water meters in rural and urban communities in Kenya. Our goal is to support long-term, clean water access that is independent of external funding. Local users pay the water kiosk owner with cash and receive credits on a token to go to an automated water tap. The water kiosk owner then pays the water organization via mobile money. The price per person per year is $5.00. This small fee covers maintenance and service and is 75% cheaper than other alternatives available on the market. In the next 6 months, we will scale up to reach 65,000 people. By 2018, we plan to reach 600,000 people.