Proof of Concept - Notes from the Field, South Sudan
August 9, 2021
Installation is complete for the first water enterprise project of Global Water First (GWF). At a total investment of $120,000, GWF designed, delivered and configured a robust water purification plant in the courtyard of the Ministry for Humanitarian and Disaster Affairs, which is located adjacent to the Presidential Offices of this new nation. The launch party was hosted by the
Undersecretaries of three Ministries…. Humanitarian, Water and Health. The owner and operator of this new water enterprise is 734 Coffee and their new brand extension 734 Water.
Founded and run by former Lost Boys of South Sudan, 734 Coffee/Water is named as an homage to the refugee settlement where the founder grew up in Ethiopia. The settlement’s geo-coordinates are 7 North/ 34 East near Gambela, Ethiopia. Fast forward to today, and Manyang Kher and his other former refugee team - now in their early 30’s - started a coffee company that buys coffee beans from a 300-farmer co-op in the region and sends the green beans for roasting to Virginia. The beans are then packaged and distributed by Amazon. That’s the coffee I drink everyday in Colorado. Manyang noticed the taste of his 734 Coffee was great in the US, but in South Sudan not so great. He realized it was the water that made the difference!
The water in that African nation is pretty bad. Not a surprise, as water quality combined with scarcity form the greatest threat to life in Africa. With the Nile river flowing through Juba, and the Nile River Basin sitting for thousands of acres beneath the country, shallow boreholes provide adequate supply that is drafted into hundreds of so-called “Clean Drinking Water” trucks. This is the primary method of water distribution for this city of 1.5 million. The introduction of 734 Water has created quite a buzz here. Bottled in sterilized and reusable 20L family bottles, the raw borehole water available to the plant at the Humanitarian Ministry is purified by Ultrafiltration membranes and a system manufactured by Innovative Water Technologies, headquartered in Colorado. The prefabricated building for the filtration and bottling production is made of Structural Insulated Panels (SIP). This “SIPSpring” building and 500 20L bottles, 4000 personal reusable bottles and some water coolers were all placed into a 40-foot high cube container and shipped by ocean a few months ago from the USA to South Sudan. The GWF team oversaw the removal of the building and the placement of the container, which serves as a small warehouse for bottles. Daily distribution began immediately, and when ramped up, 734 Water should have revenues each day of over $800 USD.
This is the first of hundreds of prospective GWF projects throughout Africa with the ambition to solve many of the UN’s Sustainability Goals:
Take women off the roads carrying 40 pounds of water from the water points… check. Provide water that exceeds the US EPA quality standard for public drinking water…check. Employ around 10 people for each water plant to sanitize, fill and distribute water to thousands…check. Create enough revenue to be able to support refugee education…check. Kickoff the work of GWF in a way that embraces the entrepreneurial spirit of former refugees… check!