Aquifer: innovation and venture planning for social enterprise
Recognising the need
Jomo Chichongo was a water systems engineer. Born in Kenya, he had experienced at first hand the effects of water scarcity in African rural areas. It was normal for women to have to walk for several miles to collect water for the family and carry it home in jugs on their heads. Periods of drought caused major problems, and the lack of water affected health and sanitation, and limited agriculture and economic development. Jomo had realised through his education that science and technology could be used to benefit people's lives, and his motivation was to apply his understanding of water engineering to make a differ¬ence to people in developing countries, by solving some of the problems of water supply. He felt that in the twenty-first century people should not have to endure the hardship and uncertainty caused by lack of water or unsafe water.
Jomo had become professionally qualified and worked as an expert in water supply for communities, government bodies and non-government organisations as weli as water supply companies. He had found that even where borehole, river or lake water was avail¬able, it was often unsafe for drinking because of the presence of minerals or other substances. The water could be tested by engineers such as himself, but in rural areas such expertise was not easily available and the quality of the relatively small supplies of water was not known. People tried the water and stopped using it only if they or their animals got sick. There was a need to find a way to test water at local level and find out if it could be filtered or treated to make it drinkable. This was the problem Jomo set out to solve.