CleanTech: Pakistani Company PakVitae Wins Hult Prize Regionals
Clean drinking water is a major issue in the world today, this issue can be further confirmed by the efforts that are being made by United Nations Developmental Program and that clean water and sanitation are part of their 17 sustainable developmental goals for 2030.
Pakistan unfortunately is one of those countries where clean drinking water is not readily available and therefore, 22 million people are force to drink dirty water in the country. However, to tackle the issue of clean drinking water in the country a startup has taken upon itself to work on the issue.
PakVitae, incubatee from the National Incubation Center in Lahore has created a portable model which purifies up to 400,000 liters of water and cleans out 99.9999 per cent of contamination. For their outstanding product, the startup has won the regional HULT Prize for 2018 and will compete at the Grand Finale of the competition.
They are to be the first team to represent Pakistan in the final competition.
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In a press release, the startup stated that
“In just $50, with our setup, a microentrepreneur can provide 1000 litres of clean drinking water every day. Our goal is to create 50,000 water-preneurs in Pakistan both in rural and urban areas within five years by collaborating with microfinance institutions like Ahkuwat Foundation and FINCA Microfinance in Pakistan.”
Shayan Sohail, speaking to a local newpaper said that they are wroking with NGOs, Government organizations, Pakistan Army, educational and health institutes, and micro-entrepreneurs to bring clean affordable water to the people.
The team is to soon leave for a two-month-long fully funded training program in the UK and will then present their final pitch at the HULT Grand Finale in September.
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Hult Prize is world’s largest engine for Social Good dubbed as Nobel Prize for Students. Pakistani students and startups are no strangers to this award, as in September 2017, Pakistani American Students won $1M at the Finals of Hult Prize held at United Nations. Today, Hult Prize is present in 1000+ Universities in 100+ Countries around the World and is creating the next wave of Social Entrepreneurship and reinventing Capitalism to move towards an Inclusive Growth model to achieve Sustainable Development Goals SDGs.
Furthermore, 20+ Universities across Pakistan including IBA Karachi, IBA Sukkur, University of Malakand, UET Lahore, ITU Lahore, Lahore Garrison University and IMS Peshawar are part of the Hult Chapter in Pakistan which is only a year old. Recently, Mahnoor Memon from IBA Sukkur has been awarded Best Hult Prize Campus Director award from over 1,000 Campus Directors globally.
