Clean water for 10,000 victims of Idai Cyclone, Mozambique

Cyclone Idai reached Mozambique on March 14, 2019 and left the country devastated. More than 1.2 million people have been affected. The force of Idai has destroyed and polluted critical water sources in Mozambique. Clean water is a basic human survival need. Due to the current lack of safe drinking water in Mozambique, people are at risk of water-borne diseases like cholera. Resiliencia Mozambique supported humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts by launching a crowdfunding initiative via the website: www.geef.nl. The aim was to raise money to provide families with water filters enabling them to produce safe drinking water.

What did we pledge?

Our initial calculations indicated that a donation of 25 euros would enable us to provide one family in Mozambique with one water filter. Distribution of the filters wes realized via the Resilience Office located in Chimoio close to the affected areas.

We used the donations to order Nazava filter candles and bought additional materials on the local market. The water filter consists of a high-tech ceramic water filter candle and a low-tech structure made from plastic buckets with a tap. The average household size in Mozambique is more than 5 and hence, we assume 1 filter will serve at least 5 people.

Mozambican families can use their filter to turn rain, river or floodwater into safe drinking water. The ceramic filter technology has been developed by Nazava, a Dutch social enterprise based in Indonesia. Their filter candles are certified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and can remove 99.9% of bacteria in the water.

What did we achieve?

The crowdfunding initiative raised 32.388,92 euros, which enabled us to potentially distribute 1472 filters. The price of local inputs and needed transport was lower than anticipated and hence, we were able to order and assemble more filters than expected. The value of the water filters has been adjusted to 22,01 euros. Moreover, local aid organizations also purchased filters as a response on Cyclone Idai, enabling us to provide an additional 1650 Nazava water filters to Mozambican families in need.

In the end, the potential number of Nazava water filters to distribute in Mozambique now equals 3122 of which 1650 were funded by local aid organizations and 1472 were funded through donations. In total we managed to distribute 2138 of the 3122 filters in total because of the depletion of our stock and the import, transport and production of new filters took much longer than expected. The 2138 filters which are distributed as a response on Cyclone Idai provide more than 10,690 victims of Idai with clean drinking water. Families will be able to use the water filters for two-three years. The other 984 filters left to distribute did enter in our Social Program to be distributed over the years 2020 and 2021, please read on for a more detailed explanation.

How did we achieve our goal?

Contributions were used to buy 2138 Nazava filter candles for the cost price from the factory in Indonesia. Other materials needed for the housing of the filter candle (plastic buckets and taps) were purchased on the Mozambican market. Unfortunately, it was difficult to purchase a sufficient number of plastic buckets as an emergency response on the Idai cyclone. Consequently, the collection of the right materials on the local market took longer than expected. Besides, it was a challenge to select the proper beneficiaries. Demand was very high and while the collection and selection process was still ongoing, we could start the distribution of installed water filters via local aid organizations (1650 pieces). The other 488 filters, funded by donations, we decided to distribute 463 filters via the Manica WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) cluster, which was coordinated by UNICEF. This cluster has the aim to coordinate the distribution of all goods and support as a response on the cyclone Idai of the different local aid organizations active in Manica province to the people in need. Through this network, we worked together with several local aid organizations as we thought this was the best way to get the filter to the right people. This led to our participation in the meetings of the WASH cluster where the highest priorities were the selection of the right areas and making sure that also food supply and other needs of the affected communities will be fulfilled. The other 25 filters were distributed in Sofala province. This has been done in a running project of Resilience in Mozambique (APSAN-Vale). We distributed water filters to the affected farmers of the Cyclone Idai with who we work together within this project. The distribution of the 488 filters, funded by donations, is illustrated in the table below.

As explained above, the local aid organizations were very eager to distribute more filters and continued to identify target beneficiaries. Moreover, they were willing to pay! Their willingness to pay would enable us to bring in more filters and expand impact. The Lutheran World Federation and Khalsa AID together requested those 1650 water filters (as illustrated below). This request immediately depleted our stock.

Overall, the network of the organizations in the affected areas enabled us to quickly deliver 2138 filters to victims of Idai. Meanwhile, we were able to order a second batch of water filters thanks to their willingness to pay.

Unfortunately, the production and transport of a new batch of, in this case, 2488 filters took longer than expected. These filters only arrived in Mozambique in October 2019. Considering the fact that demand still exceeds supply, we decided to adjust our targeting strategy to maximize the positive impact of distributed filters. It was decided to focus on donations to high-impact locations such as schools, orphanages, health clinics and hospitals targeting the most vulnerable beneficiary groups. For this reason, we did set up the so-called Nazava Social Program.

What is our next step?

Our next step is to start a social enterprise ‘Nazava Mozambique’ to continue with the sales of water filters in a commercially sustainable manner. Mozambique is slowly but surely recovering from a humanitarian disaster. Market-based solutions will ensure sustainability in the long term: we will start selling replacement parts and filters on the market.

We will sell filters to local aid organizations and individual households. Local aid organizations have the network and financial resources required to reach a large number of people. Also, we have started to sell filters to households who are willing and able to pay. Therefore, we are trying to move away from donations because we recognize how donations cannot sustain the business model of Nazava on the long-term.

And we have those 984 filters to distribute within our Social Program (schools, hospitals, educational centers, orphanages).

Thank you for your contribution! 

Your contribution has resulted in the financing of 1472 water filters. Contributions were made via the crowdfunding platform www.geef.nl and also reached us via several organizations:

• Geef.nl – € 21.482,63

• Wereldwinkel Hengelo Gld – € 2.500,00

• Water for Everyone – € 2.500,00

• Stichting Hands feet – € 2.041,00

• Stichting Hand, Zutphen – € 2.000,00

• Nikolas in Mozambique – € 1.150,04

• Van Talentstad middelbare school – € 500,00

• Tabonon Kickbox School Zwolle – € 125,00

• Albert Heijn Hengelo Gld – € 65,25

•Biowinkel Odin Zutphen – € 25,00

Total – € 32.388,92

On behalf of all the beneficiaries, we want to thank you so much for your contribution.

Resiliencia Mozambique.