Water powers Kenya. Hydropower is the single largest electricity generation source for the country. Droughts affect the population in two ways. Firstly, access to clean water for consumption reduces. Secondly, reduced hydroelectric power generation increases power outages. This was the case in 2017. Frequent blackouts and long queues at water distribution sites were the order of the day. This reality troubled Beth Koigi. Her educational background in community development had led her to founding Aqua Clean Initiative in 2013. Through this program, she distributed low-cost water filters to lower-income homes. Beth sought to find a lasting solution to the apparent lack of clean water.
Air as an Untapped Resource
At the height of the water shortages, Beth signed up for a certificate course in Exponential Technologies at Singularity University in California. Technology was providing solutions to many other fields of development. There was no reason why it couldn’t do the same for water access. While undertaking this study program, she met Anastasia Kaschenko and Clare Sewell. The three women were aligned in their goals. They aimed to contribute toward achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 and worked together to achieve this. With Anastasia’s background in environmental science and Clare’s in economics, they pooled their knowledge. They created a prototype that would allow them to harvest water from air. A dehumidifier powered by a solar source of energy was the first model. After months of research, learning, and trials and improvements, Majik Water was born.
Primary school science taught us that there is moisture in the air. We learned that moisture, which is in form of water vapour, could only return to a liquid state through condensation. This process forms part of the water cycle and explains how rain is formed. Beth harnessed this knowledge. As a result, she found a way to harvest water from the air for use in arid climates and areas with water shortages.
Drying Up of Funds
Just as the three co-founders began to envision the light at the end of the long dark tunnel, the start-up ran into a major financial setback. With no investors and the team’s savings spent on developing the prototype, funds had significantly decreased. Majik Water faced an imminent shutdown. But they were keen to keep things running until the very end. In September 2018, five months before the company was bound to close, Beth attended the Young Water Solutions conference in Zurich. Here she got the opportunity to pitch her work to Microsoft. She wasted no time knowing what was at stake. This became Majik Water’s first key partnership.
Innovation for Sustainability
Beth’s perseverance has carried the day as she realises her goal to provide clean water to remote communities. Her work has been recognized globally, and in 2018, Beth won the Women in Technology Award from Africa Women Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum. As of August 2022, Majik Water produces over 200,000 litres of water. The units are in Nairobi, Thika and Turkana among other locations in East Africa.
Through Majik Water, Beth is reducing the competition for water resources between consumption and energy generation through decentralizing access to clean water. Her work is a reminder that innovation and sustainability can coexist; they do not have to be mutually exclusive.
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