Technology innovation has a critical role to play in disaster risk reduction and management, from mitigation, prevention and preparedness, to response, relief, and recovery. SAFE STEPS D-Tech Awards was created by Prudence Foundation, the community investment arm of Prudential plc, back in 2019 to find, fund, and support technology solutions that protect and save lives before, during, or after events of natural disasters.
Now in its 3rd edition, the competition received 110 applications across the world, with wide-ranging and high-quality solutions. Six finalists were chosen to compete, namely: Castomize Technologies, H3Dynamics, Kinetic Analysis Corporation, QUICKBLOCK Ltd., LivingWaters Systems LLC, and Wateroam.
The six finalists represent a vast range of solutions, from drone technology to immediate care technology to weather prediction software, and everything in between.
Wateroam emerges as the winner
The 2023 SAFE STEPS D-Tech Awards recently concluded last June 15 at the Echelon Asia Summit 2023 Day 2 held at the Singapore EXPO. After a series of pitching competitions featuring startups from across the region, Wateroam emerged as the winner.
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Wateroam is the proponent of The ROAMfilter Plus 2, a community water filtration system that is simple to operate, long-lasting, lightweight, and cost-effective. The system’s hand pump operation requires no electricity, making it an ideal immediate solution for disaster-hit areas, particularly in rural regions. With the ROAMfilter Plus 2, a person becomes a mobile water station that can produce safe drinking water quickly for 100 people.
The ROAMfilter Plus 2 was developed after 3 years of deploying the original ROAMfilter Plus and improving its design and materials to make the ultimate disaster-proof water filtration solution that can be used to remove dirt, bacteria, and viruses from various freshwater sources.
Wateroam’s journey to victory
According to Jaron Lim, Sales Director of Wateroam, “Wateroam was started with a shared vision to build a world without thirst. Everyone in our core team has had experiences with people in rural areas without access to safe drinking water, so we wanted to create products that could fulfil that vision.”
The ROAMfilter Plus was first conceptualised by UN Young Leader Vincent Loka to address the need for enough quality drinking water for communities that did not have electricity or elevated water tanks. The humble hand-powered bicycle pump could generate enough pressure, together with low-pressure ultrafiltration membranes, to provide sustainable safe drinking water.
Part of their successful journey came with the biggest challenge faced during the COVID period — the inability to travel across borders. Lim added, ”As a hardware product that you needed to “see to believe,” along with the fact that most of our customers were international and local NGOs that are overseas, it was difficult for us to develop those relationships and make sales to sustain ourselves.”
Lim further explained, “That’s when we developed the Home segment and developed products for urban and rural households, which we have continued to invest in. This allows us a more commercial angle to sustain the humanitarian aspect of our business.”
At the heart of Wateroam is its mission of helping communities grow
To date, Wateroam has provided safe drinking water to over 250,000 people across 40 countries and has been involved in over 10 major disaster responses. As per impact on the community, ROAMfilter Plus systems have been used in the 2017 Rohingya Refugee crisis, the 2018 Lombok earthquake, the 2018 Myanmar flood, the 2020 Vanuatu Cyclone Harold, the 2021 Myanmar refugee crisis, and the 2021 Philippines Typhoon Odette. The ROAMfilter Plus 2 systems have been deployed for the ongoing Myanmar refugee crisis, the ongoing Ukraine war, the 2022 Pakistan floods, and the 2023 Turkey earthquake.
Lim stated, “Every completed project is a milestone to us, especially the disaster relief ones since we get to partner with amazing humanitarian organisations to provide an immediate impact that saves lives.”
Wateroam seeks to expand its work in the humanitarian sector and become the go-to water filter for emergency response for government bodies, international NGOs, and the UN. The team is also developing remote sensor technology in the pipeline to increase the accountability of the water filters so that partners can track the performance of each filter product that is deployed and can provide real-time reports to donors and governments of the ongoing impact.
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On top of that, Wateroam is also exploring the voluntary carbon market as an alternate source of funding for water projects so that it is possible to tap into non-CSR corporate funding to sustainably create long-lasting change for rural communities.
On behalf of Wateroam, Lim is grateful for the support. “We are very thankful to have won the D-TECH Awards and for the support from the Prudence Foundation. The prize money will support our expansion efforts and allow us to travel to more places to develop relationships with local and international NGOs and governments and collaborate on more water projects in these places. We are presently actively engaged in growing our impact in Indonesia and the Philippines which are amongst the world’s most vulnerable to disasters.”
Prudence Foundation as a catalyst in accelerating Wateroam’s growth
In the summary progress report released by the UN in 2021 on SDG Goal No. 6: Water and Sanitation for all, 26% of the world’s population (or 2 billion people) still lacks safely managed drinking water. When a disaster strikes, safe drinking water is critical to survival, yet is often unavailable.
Humanitarian organisations often face surmountable challenges in procurement, warehousing, transportation, and distribution, as well as managing the environmental impact, such as plastic waste, when delivering safe drinking water to disaster areas or in disaster relief operations.
“Wateroam is a simple yet innovative and effective solution that addresses all the challenges mentioned above. It is easily deployable and scalable, not only in disaster relief situations to save lives but also for rural or underdeveloped communities with limited or no access to safe drinking water.”
“Through the D-Tech platform, we hope to raise awareness on Wateroam to as many organisations as possible, especially governments and NGOs, to bridge the supply and demand on technologies that can save lives,“ said Marc Fancy, Executive Director of Prudence Foundation.
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Marc shared further, “Through the startup ecosystem partnership and collaboration, we hope to catalyse more investment to the D-Tech space, increasing knowledge, capability, and awareness to support the widespread adoption of solutions and tools that bring positive impacts to communities.
“It is our hope that the D-Tech Awards not only ignites but galvanises conversations and connections to bring together governments, business, and technology innovators to solve risks faced by individuals, communities and economies”.
While emerging victorious, Wateroam isn’t alone in seeking innovative ways to help save lives in the context of disaster. It was a tight race considering the quality of applicants for this year’s SAFE STEPS D-Tech Awards. Some solutions are at the forefront of cutting-edge technologies, such as AI and Satellite Communications, and some are community-based applications. There are also med-tech and health-tech solutions that can be leveraged for disastrous situations, as well as very simple yet innovative products that can be deployed at scale and speed.
About Prudence Foundation
Prudence Foundation is the community investment arm of Prudential Plc. The organisation works closely with NGOs, Governments, Communities, and Private Sector partners to strategise and implement programmes focusing on Education, Health, and Safety across Asia and Africa.
As a company, Prudential provides health and wealth solutions to millions of customers across markets, essentially providing protection and peace of mind to individuals and families.
“As a Foundation,” Marc explained, “We aim to extend this effort by focusing on ‘creating a better future for our communities by making them safer and more resilient to life’s risks.”
For more information, visit Prudence Foundation.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Prudence Foundation
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