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The Challenges of Bringing Piped Water

Whilst piped water is common in dense urban centres, bringing piped water to (semi-)rural populations presents extra difficulties due to the lack of access to finance pertaining to multiple barriers:

To Rural Areas

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Access to CAPEX financing barriers

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Hard-to-reach areas

Small project size

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Limited local capacity

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This is what TapEffect is solving!

Did you know?

In Cambodia, 8 million people could get a TapEffect water tap at home!

Our

TapEffect seeks to tackle this problem by implementing and operating portfolios of piped water systems in these rural hard-to-reach areas

Approach

Normal water utilities usually integrate a costly custom design process,  TapEffect seeks to do the opposite.

 

In contrast, our business model is based on a standardized approach to minimize the design/development costs and support limited on-site capacities with appropriate technologies and technical assistance.

Our Solution

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Business Development

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• Site selection

• Feasibility studies

• Licensing & agreements

• Community engagement & sales

• Strategical Partnerships for Scalability

Financing

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• Aggregation of projects for financing

• Finance management

• Sizing tools for techno-commercial evaluation

• Risk assessment framework

• Project model forecasts

Project Supervision

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• Overall project supervision

• Procurement management

• Design & technology selection

• Contractor 
management 

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Asset Management

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• Portfolio management tools

• Remote monitoring (using a basic SCADA system)

• Digital payment systems

• Water safety planning

Our water safety plan is based
on a continuous improvement cycle

1. Engage
communities
5. Review & Improve the implementation
4. Monitor
control measures
& verify efficacy
2. Plan
water supply
3. Assess risks
& existing control measures

Water Safety Planning

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To ensure sustainability, piped water supply needs to be seen as an ongoing process rather than a once-off installation.

 

This is Water Safety Planning

System Sustainability

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Each water system = 1,000 – 10,000 households.
Each household pays:

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Connection Fee

$40-$70

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Water Bill

approx. $5 per month

Our Revenue Model

vs.

Other Water Products

Did you know?

Most water collecting activities in the world are performed by women and girls (UNICEF)

Tap Water

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Water Filter

X Inconvenient & lengthy process 

X Requires a water source

X Mostly suitable for drinking

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Bottled Water

Expensive

Use of plastic (both single use and reusable)

X Sometimes untreated

Mostly suitable for drinking

Did you know?

443 million school days are lost each year to water-relate illness (UNHDR)

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Trucked-In Water

Expensive

X Sometimes untreated

X Necessitates proper storage

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Water Pump

X Inconvenient & lengthy process 

X Necessitates proper storage

X Can be far away

X Often abandoned

after project's completion 

X Requires maintenance 

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Well

X Inconvenient & lengthy process 

Necessitates proper storage

X Sometimes unreliable

Can be far away

X Often abandoned

after project's completion 

Requires maintenance 

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Pond

Unsafe, or requires filtering method

X Necessitates proper storage

X Mostly suitable for domestic purposes

Sometimes unreliable

X Can be far away

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Tap Water (piped)

✓ Readily available on premises

✓ Cheap

✓ Treated, suitable for drinking

✓ For all purposes

✓ Reliable

✓ A sustainable solution

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The Pilot
Project

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The 1-Unit “1U” Project

Scaling the Impacts

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The Portfolio "P1"
Project

Why we built this: it gave us some country specific experience and a site for sandboxing ideas – plus it brought in the first investor. In Cambodia, it also allows us to test technologies to smooth

Why we are building this: this is the real size thing – we want to build systems just like this again and again. Our 1U project has a $500k capex, has over 14,000 people within the covered area, and connects 10 schools and 2 HCFs

What’s next up: A portfolio of systems. Each just like the 1U and managed as a portfolio. These systems will be planned together, financed together, built together and operated together.

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