Esias is the Co-Founder of Alma Ventures, an organisation that installed solar-powered water pumps in communities in rural Chad.
This allowed local populations to decrease their risk of water-borne diseases with high mortality rates. Clean water makes a particular impact on the lives of children and young people, who face the highest risk of death due to these communicable diseases.
To deliver its services, Alma Ventures enlisted local Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) officers, who were responsible for monitoring the supply of chlorine to the water pumps and notifying a call centre if stocks were low. From there, call centre operators worked with motorbike riders to replenish chlorine supplies with the assistance of local warehouses. A mobile application enabled data on the pumps, chlorine, and the local community’s water-borne disease rate to be collected for monitoring and evaluation. Overall, the project installed 127 solar-powered water pumps that provided 67,000 people with access to clean water.
Looking ahead, Esias is working to develop community healthcare centres to further improve the health of populations in Chad. He is preparing for phase one of a project that will initially bring three integrated health centres to Chadian communities, working with pharmacies and laboratories, with the assistance of motorbikers. These bikers will transport samples from health facilities to the laboratories and gain employment in the process. Esias also hopes to integrate an electronic health records system into this project to improve health awareness and outcomes.
