Empowering young people to develop effective solutions in the water sector and implement them with support from professional partners: this is the mission of the NGO Young Water Solutions (YWS) headquartered in Brussels. As of April this year, teams from South Africa had the opportunity for the first time to apply with the ManziMakers challenge (Manzi = water in Zulu), after having completed incubation programmes in Nicaragua, Senegal and Uganda, to participate in the comprehensive eight-months programme designed to strengthen early-stage business ideas. Evi Hoch of the Wilo-Foundation signed a funding agreement at YWS in Brussels for the first time in spring 2023. Further key funding partners for the South Africa programme are the well-known non-profit organisation Viva con Agua from Hamburg, which also has an office in South Africa, and the Belgian company Aquafin.

After a preselection by YWS in July, a first 2-day online workshop was organised and attended by 60 participants from 20 project teams. During the workshop, the teams presented their ideas, participated in coaching sessions and received professional advice from experts from academia and the business sector. At a networking event, participants had an opportunity to connect with invited partners and guests, including Matthew Magwede and Christine Amira (Wilo Group) and David Höltgen (Wilo-Foundation). To qualify for funding and thus be able to continue their projects, the teams had to present a pitch video and a pitch deck with their business ideas. A jury consisting of programme and network partners then selected three winning teams, who are currently working on professionalising and expanding their projects. The winning teams most recently met at a bootcamp in Cape Town in September where they developed their projects further, with support through individual training measures and advice from network partners and water experts.

These water projects will be taken to the next level:

One of the projects, "Amativoli", is currently developing a smart water management software for real-time monitoring of water quality and quantity for the private, commercial and industrial sectors. Another project ("hydrodripâ") is developing a special measuring system that is integrated in a reward mechanism called "Water Credit". The mechanism is based on a scoring system that rewards people for efficient water use. The project is currently being tested in student residences in Johannesburg. And the "GoTukis" project is working to establish the only crowdfunding platform in South Africa for water and sanitation initiatives. Two other projects focus on recycling and sustainable waste management.

The ManziMakers Challenge will be continued next year with the incubation phase. The projects will be developed further so they can be piloted from mid-2025 onwards.