Rwanda social enterprise wages war on dirty floors with an alternative to cement
Friday, October 20, 2017
When Gayatri Datar started social enterprise, EarthEnable, to provide locally sourced ‘healthy’ clay floors as alternative to cement, she did not expect it to catch global attention.
The floors are 75 per cent less expensive, and produce 90 per cent fewer emissions, than cement. The floors are sealed using a plant-based oil.
Fastforward and that invention recently won the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge 2017 that came with €500,000 (about Rwf500 million) in prize money.
The floors are credited for making homes or communities healthier through eliminating health problems caused by dirt floors, such as childhood asthma, diarrhea, malnutrition, and parasitic infestations.
The award ceremony took place in the Dutch city of Amsterdam on September 14.
Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, one of the world’s largest competitions in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship, reported that “during the finale, co-founder Gayatri Datar impressed the international jury with her sustainable alternative for cement to replace dirt floors.”
Photo courtesy of Sudipto Sarkar.
Source: The New Times (link opens in a new window)
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- Environment, Health Care
