WellPower: A Sustainable and Scalable Approach to Addressing the Water Crisis in Kenya Using an Innovative Smartphone App–Based Clean Water Delivery Network
Bethwel Kiplimo, Todd Baldwin, Noah Schochet, Ayushi Sinha, Bayo Okusanya, Ronnie Kihonge · 2019
Examines WellPower, a start-up in Kenya focused on clean water delivery using smartphones. Governments in the developing world prove unable to provide the necessary infrastructure to supply piped water to over 60 percent of the population. Existing private solutions prove too expensive and too inconvenient and often provide unsafe water. WellPower uniquely understands the real problem rests in water distribution, which accounts for 90 percent of the cost of clean water, and uses a smartphone app to connect customers to deliverymen for fast, affordable, and convenient clean water delivery. Customers place an order through the app, a motorcycle deliveryman receives the order and goes to the nearest networked safe water kiosk, then delivers it directly to the customer’s doorstep. In essence, WellPower acts as a pipeless water distribution network that remains decentralized, digital, rapidly scalable, and economically sustainable. Digitizing this process removes inefficiencies in water delivery, resulting in a cost-efficient distribution.