A solar-powered desalination system has been inaugurated in Kibaha district of Tanzania. German start-up Boreal Light commissioned the system which aims to improve water supply in the area.
The new system was installed by Kenyan start-up WaterKiosk Africa, which partners with Boreal Light, a provider of water desalination solutions. According to WaterKiosk, this system is the largest of its kind installed in Tanzania to date with a capacity of over 100 m3 per day.
Boreal Light is received support from Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), the subsidiary of the German Development Agency (KfW) in the implementation of this project. The development finance institution intervened within the framework of the develoPPP.de program initiated by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
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Water supply program
WaterKiosk Africa reports that the water supplied by the desalination system installed at Medewell Hospital is also used for fish farming and vertical livestock production. Boreal will install a total of five water desalination systems in health facilities in Tanzania. Kenya will benefit from 23 such facilities.
“This will offset more than 18,000 tons of CO2 per year. This is an excellent model of climate change mitigation practices in Africa,” said Hamed Beheshti, Boreal Light’s CEO in March 2021 at the launch of the East African hospital water supply program.
The start-up Boreal Light, based in Berlin, Germany, also provides systems that treat wastewater from sanitary facilities. Such plants are important in hospitals treating Covid-19 cases daily. Untreated wastewater discharged into nature could contribute to the contamination of local populations.