The fountain that facilitates access to clean water
After Hurricane Mathew devastated Haiti, the poorest country of the Caribbean’s, last autumn, Nantes Metropolis supported the Haitian region Grand’Anse by supplying 15 “Safe Water Cube” fountains, allowing 15 000 people to access clean water. And the fountain was even invented by someone from Nantes!
Jean-Paul Augereau created “Safe Water Cube”, a fountain that transforms unsafe water (from ponds, wells and rivers) into clean water, even in the most isolated villages, without using electricity or chemicals. After six years of research, Jean-Paul Augereau invented a simple and solid machine that is filled using a bucket or a hose. A manual pump is then activated to filter water through five non chemical filters, each with a ten years lifetime average.
This pump, manufactured in Nantes, enables 1 000 litres of unsafe water to be transformed into drinking water in just an hour, and ensures the daily water consumption of a one thousand inhabitants village.
While there are currently 2 billion people around the world without access to clean water, “Safe Water Cube” provides a solution to villages cut off from everything (electricity, resources…). This fountain then turns into collective property: two people are trained for its maintenance, and they are compensated by the inhabitants, collectively.
The manufacturing and installation of the fountain cost € 5 500, and are financed by an endowment fund named “Safe Water Cube”, created and managed by Jean-Paul Augereau, who collects funds from companies and individuals. Around 40 fountains have already been set up across the world (in Benin, India, Sri Lanka and Cameroun) and 15 in Haiti, financed by Nantes Metropolis after the hurricane hit the country last autumn.
The inventor also wrote a theatre play with an author from Nantes. The play is performed in French schools and is followed by an exchange between the French pupils and those in the villages where the fountains have been installed.
More information can be found:
- on Nantes Metropolis website here and there
- on « Safe Water Cube » website
