Now launching in Kenya – Tricorona's innovative carbon offset project that purifies water

Millions of Kenyan households need to boil their drinking water. When this is done using firewood, it causes deforestation and emits carbon. Households spend hours a day collecting firewood, or a large part of their income to buy it. Tricorona is now presenting a solution to this problem: The Solvatten water purification device, that will give thousands of Kenyans clean drinking water at the same time as it saves thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions.

“We are very proud to bring Solvatten to rural Kenyan households, and at the same time give households safe water and avoid deforestation. Thanks to carbon credits, we can make Solvatten accessible even to households with low incomes”, says Niels von Zweigbergk, CEO of Swedish-based Tricorona, at the launch for the Tricorona Solvatten CDM-project, held today in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Solvatten, which means “sunwater” in Swedish, purifies the water using the UV- rays and the heat from the sun, which destroys E-coli, cholera, salmonella and other bacteria. The Solvatten invention looks like a jerry can, but once the user has collected water in it, it is opened in the middle and put in the sun. The transparent plastic and the shape of the container cleans the water in a few hours. A simple symbol indicates when the water is ready to drink.

“More than two thirds of all health problems stem from unhealthy water, used for drinking, cooking or washing. That is why it is so important to ensure that Kenyans have access to safe water, which doesn't come at a high cost in terms of money, time or the felling of trees. Once the household has Solvatten, safe water is free”, says Solvatten inventor and CEO Petra Wadström.

Tricorona aims to establish Solvatten as a carbon offset project within the CDM-system (Clean Development Mechanism) established by the United Nations Kyoto Protocol. As a first step the project is currently starting up in the Western Province, where field trials have been undertaken to establish the exact carbon benefits with Solvatten, based on the amount of non-renewable biomass/firewood that is saved when water is not purified through boiling. Tricorona currently has more than 125 registered CDM-projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Several European companies have already decided to offset their carbon emissions through Solvatten.

“The reduced carbon footprint is only part of the story. This is very clear with Solvatten, where the reduced emissions go hand in hand with better living conditions for rural households”, says Niels von Zweigbergk who also emphasizes that Tricorona is on the look-out for other CDM-projects in Kenya and East Africa.

Tricorona will use the carbon finance to reduce the price for the Solvatten device, and will team up with Micro Financing Institutes to further lower the threshold for households that want to get safe water without having to spend time and money on firewood. Groups of youth entrepreneurs are also involved, to help spread Solvatten and create local employment in the process.


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For further information please contact:
Niels von Zweigbergk, CEO Tricorona,  +46 (0)8 506 885 00  +46 (0)8 506 885 00
Petra Wadström, CEO Solvatten AB,  +46(0)8 777 29 05  +46(0)8 777 29 05
Mattias Goldmann, press contact in Kenya:  +254 716-328 598  +254 716-328 598 , mattias.goldmann@tricorona.com