- Sep 9, 2021
- 3 min read
Maithri Aquatech believes that all living beings - humans AND flora and fauna have a right to water. The Company has partnered with Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua, popularly known as the ‘Waterman of Kenya’, to provide water in water scarce areas in and around Tsavo National Park in Kenya.
Water Scarcity in Africa
Most African countries have been facing severe water crises over the past several years due to population increase and climate change. Tropical, arid locations such as the Savannahs of Africa are the worst hit by water scarcity due to high temperatures and vast stretches of flat plain-like environment. Major water holes are drying up leaving no water available for wildlife.
Patrick Mwalua’s Mission
Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua is a farmer who has been on a unique mission for the past few years. He provides water to the animals in the wild when it is not readily available in times of water shortage.
Kenya faced a severe drought some years back. Scarcity of water threatened the survival of animals close to where Mwalua lived, a remote region located about fifty kilometres from Tsavo National Park. The Jipe lake, on the border between Kenya and Tanzania, is the main source of water for Tsavo West National Park. The lake lost a huge amount of water, nearly 10 metres, over a decade. This led to a water crisis in many villages depending on the lake for their water needs, and also severely affected wildlife in the area[1].
Deeply affected by this, in November 2016, Patrick decided to rent a truck and drive for hours, multiple times a week, to transport water to the animals in the park. He travelled large distances with his tanker to re-fill the dried water holes in Kenya’s Elephant Corridor. His contribution to supporting wildlife through this act of providing water earned him global acclaim and epithets as, “the Waterman of Tsavo” and “the Kenyan Waterman”.
Patrick has been working with various beneficiaries to develop a stable system of transporting water to the waterholes. But with Kenya as a country itself being water-scarce, the ability to source water to fill his tankers made his project difficult.
Collaboration with Maithri Aquatech
Patrick faced the combined challenges of sourcing water in a water-scarce region, and travelling long distances multiple times to recharge water holes; Maithri Aquatech had a solution for both. Patrick reached out to Maithri Aquatech and the Company, as a CSR initiative, has provided him with several units of MEGHDOOT Water from Air Systems to facilitate his cause. MEGHDOOT is a unique decentralised atmospheric water generator that generates water from air, without relying on external water sources.
The MEGHDOOT Magnum+ model was specially exported to Kenya to facilitate Patrick’s cause and help him ‘produce’ clean drinking water on the spot, with no need for any water source. Each of these machines capable of generating up to 1000 litres of water per day, will be installed in Tsavo National Park, and is expected to significantly benefit wildlife in the area. Under this project the energy requirements for MEGHDOOT will be met by solar energy.
MEGHDOOT has provided a practical, sustainable and decentralised option, capable of meeting water requirements in remote regions with zero water infrastructure, to Patrick to further his excellent mission. Patrick says that, “(MEGHDOOT is) An ideal solution for all places in Africa. We don’t have access to the previous water sources we used to depend on due to climate change. (MEGHDOOT) Can solve Africa’s water problem completely!”
