[three_fourth]The Swiss company South Pole and Basic Water Needs have decided to join forces to make safe drinking water available to coffee farmers in Tanzania. Together with local partner organization KADERES they are setting up a pilot project for safe water and CO 2 reduction in the Kagera region, Tanzania. The project partners want to set up a sustainable supply chain that will make affordable water filters and spare parts available in the region. With a water filter, families no longer have to boil their drinking water, thereby reducing CO 2 emissions. This will safe them much time, energy and money, while making their families and the environment healthier.
BWN will train local community banks called SACCOS, which are interested in selling the filter. They can offer the filters to their members through a loan, which the members can pay back in installments. This will make it easier for households to purchase a water filter. The project partners are aiming to reach 7,500 households (35,000 people) with Tulip Table Top water filters in the first year.
The project set up is special in that it does not receive any donor funding, but is financed by carbon credits. Currently people are boiling their drinking water as a way to purify it. By using a filter they will no longer have to boil their water and thereby reduce their usage of wood/charcoal and CO2 emissions. For this reduced amount of CO 2 emissions the project partners can receive carbon credits, which they will sell to gain project income. Through this structure, the project can be set up and sustained.
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