Nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Innovation: Africa has set itself the ambitious goal of impacting more than ten-million people positively by the end of 2026, through the installation of solar power in schools and medical centers and the implementation of solar water pumping systems in rural African villages.

To date, the organisation has completed over 600 solar and water projects and over the next five years, aims to complete more than 2 000 projects. This goal equates to one project, or installation, a day.

Innovation: Africa has impacted more than three-million people over its past 12 years of operation in countries including Senegal, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and eSwatini.

So far this year, the organisation has completed nearly 200 solar and water projects, transforming the lives of almost one-million people across six African countries.

Innovation: Africa Founder & CEO Sivan Y’ari highlights a key milestone as the organisation having employed its one-hundredth full-time employee.

She tells Engineering News that, despite the challenges posed by Covid-19, Innovation: Africa has successfully reached its goals owing to the strength of local teams and contractors across Africa. As such, she is confident that the organisation can achieve its five-year expansion plan and seeks to hire additional team members.

The organisation typically hires civil and electrical engineers, hydrogeologists and various energy and water experts across its countries of operation.

Innovation: Africa ensures community members are trained and hired by the contractor in the construction of a project. Community members then have the skills to successfully complete maintenance and repairs, should the projects require, and have skills in their arsenal for other job opportunities.

The organisation also installs their United Nations-award-winning remote monitoring technology that enables tracking of the amount of water and/or electricity produced and consumed across its projects at any time.

Innovation: Africa’s team of managers and field officers work closely with municipalities to identify areas of greatest need in each region and works solely in villages which do not have existing electrical and water infrastructure.

The organisation often partners with companies that have experience in geophysical surveying, water quality testing, drilling and construction. Innovation: Africa currently has 42 contractors working on solar and water project installations across Africa.

Ya’ari unpacks the process involved in planning a solar water pumping system, starting with surveying and drilling. Innovation: Africa drills wells up to 250 m in the ground to reach aquifers and, thereafter, builds 10-m-tall water towers, followed by installation of solar panels on top of the water towers to capture energy.

The solar panels power a submersible pump, which is installed in the aquifer; the organisation typically raises a 10 000-litre water tank to the top of the tower where groundwater is pumped and stored for distribution.

For distribution, the organisation has kilometres of trenches dug around the villages and lays pipes to distribute water to taps, which are also installed. Water taps are always constructed throughout a village.

Moreover, Innovation: Africa provides solar energy and uses its in-house designed Energy Box system to light an entire school or medical centre, as well as power laptops, vaccine refrigerators and medical equipment. The solution uses a lithium-ion battery and special light-emitting-diode light made in Israel.

The Energy Box solution provides an optimised, scalable and long-lasting solution for rural clinics and schools across Africa.

It remains a challenge that more than 600-million people across sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity, including in schools and medical centres. This while 300-million Africans do not have access to clean water.

Ya’ari says she sees dramatic transformation across the villages the organisation serves once they are provided access to energy and clean water.

“Communities are safer and receive improved healthcare, children are able to attend school and they are no longer trying to study by candlelight or search for water.

“Additionally, communities have the chance to become economically empowered and independent through local job creation.”

Ya’ari also sees local entrepreneurs, particularly women, establishing micro-businesses in the villages that are able to sell fresh produce grown with the help of clean water, for example.

She says the knock-on effects of these projects are that people are able to rise to a purpose without being held back by circumstances and this while an abundant African resource is harnessed.