In Africa, access to drinking water remains a challenge in many countries. Boreal Light, the German supplier of solar-powered water treatment solutions, is one of a number of start-ups supporting government policies in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), which aims to achieve universal access to drinking water by 2030. In this interview with AFRIK 21, Hamed Beheshti, co-founder and CEO of Boreal Light, explains the issues and challenges associated with access to drinking water in Africa.
In Africa, access to drinking water remains a challenge in many countries. Boreal Light, the German supplier of solar-powered water treatment solutions, is one of a number of start-ups supporting government policies in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), which aims to achieve universal access to drinking water by 2030. In this interview with AFRIK 21, Hamed Beheshti, co-founder and CEO of Boreal Light, explains the issues and challenges associated with access to drinking water in Africa.
AFRIK 21: In Africa, access to water is a real problem. Despite the efforts of governments and development partners, the situation has changed very little, with 418 million people lacking access to a source of drinking water. How is the Boreal Light start-up responding to this challenge?
Hamed Beheshti: Access to drinking water is not just an African problem, it’s a global challenge. Many regions of the world are facing serious problems of access to reliable sources of water for drinking and irrigation, particularly in southern Europe. However, what differentiates the case of Africa from that of Europe is the infrastructure. Meeting the water challenge in southern Europe certainly requires a different type of solution to that in the isolated villages of sub-Saharan Africa. As a company, we don’t work on public infrastructure, we focus primarily on decentralised solar desalination systems that enable an entire community (even one with hundreds of thousands of people) to have access to drinking water without needing to burn a single drop of fossil fuel to power the systems.
Does your start-up focus particularly on desalination? Why this solution when the African continent has enormous freshwater resources?
In fact, the answer is no! We treat water using solar energy. That means all types of water, from brackish water to seawater, from municipal wastewater to industrial wastewater. We don’t just produce drinking water, we also supply special systems for irrigation, fish farming and sanitation, all powered by solar energy, and only solar energy.
After taking stock of Boreal Light’s projects in Africa, we found that most, if not all, were being implemented in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda). Why choose this particular region to the detriment of a region like Central Africa or West Africa, where the problems of access to water are just as great? Does this choice conceal specific problems?
We do indeed have systems in Senegal, Nigeria and soon in Morocco. However, you’re right, our stronghold has been East Africa. That’s where we started our work. But the good news is that by next year, we will be setting up our second African assembly hall in the west of the continent. Following the success of our first assembly centre in Nairobi and the considerable influence this facility has had on our work, we now want to invest in the west with the same desire. The Nairobi assembly centre covers Somalia to Mozambique, and we want to cover Morocco to Angola with our West Africa assembly centre.
The solutions you are deploying in East Africa include brackish water desalination systems. Except that desalination consumes a lot of energy and is often criticised for that. What is Boreal Light doing to overcome this energy efficiency problem?
We run the systems solely on solar energy, and nothing but solar energy. Even without a battery, the direct-drive solar desalination system.
Projects implemented by Boreal Light in East Africa include the successful programme to install 23 solar-powered desalination systems in Kenya and five in Tanzania, as well as the programme to install 28 solar-powered desalination systems in hospitals treating Covid-19 cases on a daily basis in the coastal region of Kenya. How can such installations be made profitable, particularly in rural areas where incomes are very low?
This specific project was co-financed by Boreal Light and Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), a subsidiary of Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the German development agency. The reason we decided to co-invest in this project was its overall importance for any future emergency solution.
Today, six million people visiting hospitals in East Africa receive drinking and washing water thanks to our system. This is a global model. And once our technology has won such recognition, we are sure to have a guaranteed market that will offset the initial investment. You always profit from the risks you take.
In this context, how does a start-up like Boreal Light manage to get by, particularly in terms of funding?
Every start-up has its own market, its own network, its own customers and its own potential. There is no one-size-fits-all prescription. In our case, we make our living from commercial sales, and this is by far the most reliable route to growth. In addition, there are many innovative financial practices from which businesses can benefit. For example, we have worked extensively with carbon credits and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) budgets for companies. While traditional financing mechanisms benefit more stable companies, it is innovative financing that can adapt to the conditions and needs of agile start-ups.
What role does innovation play in your development process?
A company that doesn’t constantly innovate is one that exacerbates its strengths. In fact, our Research and Development (R&D) department is the most active and it’s for this that we continue to obtain budgets. You can’t create something and then ten years later continue to market it, because your competitors have their eyes on your mouth. As soon as you market your work and make it public, you have to work on the next versions and not talk about it until it’s officially presented to the public. This is the secret of marketing, business and innovation. A company without active R&D is a dead company.
Interview by Inès Magoum
