Essential aid using natural resources
More than 600 million people in Africa have never seen a light bulb, while 620 million in sub-Saharan Africa are living without electricity, according to American energy expert Sivan Ya’ari.
Ya’ari’s New York-based non-profit Innovation: Africa has been behind a push to bring Israeli solar, agricultural and water technologies to rural African villages.
Speaking at the Singularity University South Africa Summit 2019, she said the situation was “not about one country and one village”, but about a continent.
“Installing solar energy in schools and medical centres is not a once-off solution. What happens when the light bulbs burn out or batteries die? For Innovation: Africa, solar energy was only the start of creating small businesses – like cellphone charging stations and barber shops,” said Ya’ari.
“But solar wasn’t the only issue – the main problem was water. Students, for example, were too weak to walk to school. Sometimes the source of the problem is also the source of the solution.
“In looking at drought and vegetation, yesterday the sun was the problem, but today, it’s the sun that brings water to the same villages.
“Sometimes the technology already exists – you don’t need to invent when you can work with what is already around and useable...”
For Innovation: Africa, the solution was simple – “capture energy from the sun, that exists, to capture existing water” from the ground. “Our main goal has been to pump water. Innovation: Africa is drilling for water, installing pumps and drip tanks as well as bringing seeds to help villagers grow fruit and vegetables.
“With water, villagers can make and sell bricks, finally building homes. For medical centres, solar brings the ability to run fridges to store medicine.”
The organisation operates in 10 African countries and has helped 1 597 461 people.
Bringing solar energy to a school costs about R250 000 and the company works with local contractors and village chiefs to create an ecosystem for change. The organisation has been working on a project in a Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, community.