Reception for African Water and Sanitation Entrepreneurs

February 19, 2009 • 6:00 – 7:30 pm EST

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On Thursday, February 19th, the CSIS Global Water Futures Project held a reception for three African water and sanitation entrepreneurs: David Kuria, Joseph Adelegan, and Trevor Mulaudzi. The event was co-hosted by Ashoka, the Global Water Challenge, Water Advocates, the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast, and the Water Environment Federation.

Steve Werner, the former CEO of Water for People, provided opening remarks. David Strelneck of Ashoka introduced the three water and sanitation entrepreneurs and provided background information on the Ashoka Fellows program.

Trevor Mulaudzi discussed his entrepreneurial approaches for systematizing successful sanitation and clean water services in schools. His “cleaning toilets” project in South Africa now has a staff of over 300 people and is quickly expanding. He has recently been invited to counsel programs in Malaysia and elsewhere on similar strategies, and is an Ashoka Fellow, Global Water Challenge awardee, and Changemakers.net finalist.

Joseph Adelegan, a civil engineer by training, spoke next about his bottom-up approach to infrastructure projects in Nigeria. He described the rise of his Cows to Kilowatts initiative, which uses waste from a local slaughterhouse to produce biogas for powering homes off-grid. This reduces water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions while creating local energy supply and jobs. Joseph explained that this model could be applied to other companies beyond the livestock business and that saving the environment can be profitable. Joseph recently received a World Economic Forum technology pioneer award for these social and technological innovations.

David Kuria of Kenya provided final remarks about a number of creative approaches that have opened a dialogue in Africa on the taboo topic of sanitation. For example, in the “pulpit agenda,” bishops speak to their congregations about the linkages between godliness and cleanliness, sanitation, and hygiene. David is also working with a Kenyan beauty queen to teach young people that beauty and cleanliness are synonymous, and he is working with a leading comedian to bring laughter and openness into the dialogue around sanitation and hygiene. David also discussed the highly successful “sanitation enterprise kiosks” that are spreading rapidly in Kenya. Amongst other accomplishments, David is an Ashoka Fellow, Global Water Challenge awardee, Acumen Fund investee and Changemakers.net finalist. David is also the project manager for the Rotary Club of Southeast Denver’s Kibera Project.

The CSIS Global Water Futures Project is grateful to its co-hosts for making this event possible, and we are especially appreciative of these three entrepreneurs for sharing their inspirational success stories from their work in the water and sanitation sector.