Water filtration manufacturer Pentair PLC has joined with Coca-Cola Co. to bring the first "ekocenter" offering filtered water and solar-powered charging stations to an underserved rural village in Rwanda, company officials announced Wednesday.
The site, two hours from the capital of Kigali, will provide 25,000 residents in Ruhunda for the first time with Wi-Fi access, mobile charging stations, a retail store and up to 20,000 liters of purified water a day.
The ekocenter creates "a sustainable economic model to ensure we have a lasting impact," said Pentair CEO Randy Hogan. "The idea is to create a community center of sorts."
Pentair donated two water purification systems to clean the village's well water. The result is water that exceeds standards set by the World Health Organization, the company said.
The ekocenter opened Monday with a ceremony led by Hogan, Rwandan President H.E. Paul Kagame, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Other partners include mobile communications company Ericsson; German solar power firm Solarkiosk; and telecom operator TIGO Rwanda.
Included in the project are an adjacent medical office and solar-powered lights to make the nearby soccer field the only fully lit one outside Kigali.
Hogan said that, while the technology is great, he was "most thrilled by our people and how our employees are connected to the local residents of Ruhunda and how grateful they were to have the clean water."
Pentair, which is based in England but largely managed from Golden Valley, has up to 50 employees in Kenya and Nigeria who fly in to service various projects in Rwanda, including this new philanthropic mission that involves two filtration systems worth roughly $10,000 each, Hogan said.
