Swedish water purification company invests in SA

Rolling out water purification capacity

WITH the Western Cape facing its worst drought in history and Day Zero having been brought forward, Sweden’s global water technology company Bluewater has made a significant investment in a local water solutions firm, for an undisclosed amount.

Bluewater announced yesterday that it had invested in I-Drop Water, a South African water solutions provider based in Joburg, to provide better access to clean drinking water and slash single-use plastic bottle use.

I-Drop Water designs, builds and installs drinking water purification and dispensing machines in general grocery stores at no capital cost, and shares ongoing revenue from water sales with store owners.

Bluewater’s water purifiers were recently demonstrated and enjoyed in Cape Town as part of the Volvo Ocean Race, turning borehole water in the V&A Waterfront into clean and safe drinking water without impacting on municipal water supplies.

Anders Jacobson, co-founder and chief executive of Blue AB, the Swedish sustainability company that owns Bluewater said: “Bringing I-Drop Water into the Bluewater family strengthens the fast-track approach to bringing our water solutions technology market proposition to South Africa and elsewhere in Africa.”

Jacobson said he noted how I-Drop had quickly built a strong, growing market position in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana, a presence Bluewater was committed to help grow in the long term.

With the drought in the Western Cape, a national listeriosis outbreak, and being among the world’s 30 driest countries, the coalescing of the two companies could not be better timed.

While Bluewater specialises in water purification solutions for home, commercial and public drinking stations, I-Drop designs, builds and installs drinking water purification and dispensing machines. Together the two companies will improve local access to water purification solutions that process almost any source of water, grey water, rainwater and borehole water, into drinkable water.

I-Drop, formed in 2015 by husband-and-wife team James and Kate Steere, uses nano-purification water filtration technology and a GSM-enabled platform to empower grocery store owners to purify and sell safe, affordable drinking water.

James Steere said, “Thanks to I-Drop Water more people can afford safe drinking water, less plastic waste is produced and local economies benefit by supporting their local grocery stores.”

Kate Steere said, “Thanks to Bluewater’s stated mission to bring access to clean water to everyone everywhere and contribute to ending the single-use plastics scourge, we are uniquely positioned jointly to tackle two of Africa’s biggest challenges, clean drinking water availability and plastic waste.”