A 1,000-litre water tank that weighs only 23 kilogrammes and can be easily transported in a flat-packed cardboard box has won the AidEx Aid Innovation Challenge 2016.
The Pak Flat Tank, produced by Greenco Water, won the €3,000 prize and a stand at next year’s event for its innovative approach and in overcoming the logistical problems of transporting and installing traditional water tanks.
“It’s a classic winner of the Aid Innovation Challenge–a simple idea that makes a huge amount of difference,” said Nicholas Rutherford, Aidex Event Director and one of the judges.
A key point behind the design and win that impressed the judges was that its tank can be assembled by anyone and only in a few minutes.
“The Pak Flat Tank is a micro solution with a macro impact, allowing hard-hit communities to easily install water storage within days of a disaster or other humanitarian crisis,” said Simon McMahon, CEO, Greenco Water.
“It provides water to families when and where they need it most, is environmentally sound; able to be set up or removed in minutes, and can be taken by the people back to their homes when it becomes possible, leaving no trace, and giving them a reliable source of water for years.”
McMahon added that 400 water tanks can fill a 12.2-metre shipping container in one delivery adding that each packed shipping container has the potential to hold 400,000 litres of water.
Pak Flat Tanks are already in storage in warehouses around the world, by Save The Children, Oxfam, and Rotary and the tank has already been used in response to cyclones in Vanuatu and Fiji.
Not only is it being used to help provide water to disaster-hit populations but can provide communities with immediate access to water as in the Itokama region of Papua New Guinea, which saves locals from trekking half a kilometre to a well.
