The Gravit'eau association and Terre des homes have been awarded a prestigious Elhra Humanitarian Innovation Fund’s (HIF) Journey to Scale grant for their mobile handwashing station.
Ideal for water-scarce and crisis settings, the Gravit’eau handwashing station safely reduces water use by up to 99% per handwash when compared to other systems. The gravity-driven water-recycling system accomplishes this without chemicals or electricity.
The innovative mobile-handwashing system invented earlier by the Gravit’eau association, evolved from a partnership between Terre des hommes (Tdh), the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), SKAT Consulting Ltd, MARTIN Systems, Cesvi Foundation, and RANAS.
Gravit’eau pilot programmes currently target the most vulnerable populations in refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) camps, primary health care facilities and schools in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso and Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) that don’t have functional water supply systems.
This prestigious HIF partnership is worth £580,000 of direct investment over two years, with support and guidance from Elrha’s HIF-experts over three years that will contribute to partnership development and testing new approaches. This five-year HIF partnership will enable Gravit’eau systems to be produced locally and reach 100,000 people daily across five countries, a major step towards mass humanitarian rollout.
If there’s anything that the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced, it’s that increasing access to safe, sustainable handwashing facilities accompanied by efficient behavior change intervention is more important than ever.
Hand washing saves lives. It's that simple.
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