Get inspired by top young sanitation entrepreneurs

Published on: 29/10/2015

On November 2^nd, 2015, Mayor of Amsterdam Eberhard van der Laan will announce the winners of the 2015 Sarphati Sanitation Awards. The ceremony takes place during the Amsterdam International Water Week.

There are two awards this year: one for young entrepreneurs and one lifetime achievement award.

Young entrepreneurs

The four nominees for the young entrepreneur award are:

• FINISH Society: Network of organizations, operating in 10 states in India producing one toilet every four minutes by offering households smart finance solutions for the construction of good quality shared or private toilets;
• Samagra: Operates toilet blocks in India and stimulates hygienic behaviour with a reward system;
• ZanaAfrica: Provides adolescent girls in Kenya with sanitary pads so they can stay in school;
• Safi Sana: Collects toilet- and organic waste from slums in Accra, Ghana, to produce organic fertiliser and biogas

All four nominees are eager to discuss their initiatives with you on the SuSanA Forum.

Dr. Kamal Kar

The winner of the Life Time Achievement Award has already been announced: Dr Kamal Kar, the founder of the CLTS Foundation. Fifteen years ago Dr Kar pioneered the now widely used Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach. CLTS is based on “abandoning subsidies and appealing to the better nature of villagers and their sense of self-disgust to bring about change”.

Visitors to the Amsterdam International Water Week can meet the prize winners and nominees in person during the Sarphati Award Ceremony, November 2^nd from 16:30 – 18:00 and during the Sarphati Workshop on November 3^rd from 14:05 – 15:25.

About the Sarphati Awards

World Waternet, Netherlands Water Partnership and Aqua for All initiated the biennial Sarphati Sanitation Award in 2013 to honour the outstanding contribution of individuals or organisations to the global sanitation and public health challenge through entrepreneurship.

The prize is named after Samuel Sarphati (1813-1866), a Dutch doctor, chemist, philanthropist and entrepreneur who pioneered solid and faecal waste collection services in Amsterdam.