Pak Flat Tank wins global aid innovation challenge
Greenco Water’s Pak Flat Tank has been named as the winner of the prestigious AidEx Aid Innovation Challenge 2016. A highlight of the world’s biggest annual humanitarian aid event, the Aid Innovation Challenge aims to find the next big invention that will impact the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Following a live pitch process, Greenco Water took home the grand prize of 3,000 euros and a stand at next year’s AidEx event. The judges were impressed by Greenco’s approach to overcoming the logistical issues of transporting and installing traditional water tanks, by developing a 1,000 litre water tank that arrives flat-packed in a cardboard box.
It weighs just 23kg, and can be assembled by anyone, anywhere in just a few minutes. 400 water tanks can pack full a 40ft shipping container – for those who like math, that’s 400,000 litres of water storage – all in one delivery.
Aidex Event Director and Aid Innovation Challenge Judge Nicholas Rutherford said it was a great win. “It’s a classic winner of the Aid Innovation Challenge – a simple idea that makes a huge amount of difference.”
Greenco Water CEO Mr Simon McMahon said that winning the award was an absolute honour. “The Pak Flat Tank is a micro solution with a macro impact, allowing hard-hit communities to easily install water storage within days of a disaster or other humanitarian crisis,”
“It provides water to families when and where they need it most, is environmentally sound; able to be set up or removed in minutes, and can be taken by the people back to their homes when it becomes possible, leaving no trace, and giving them a reliable source of water for years,”
“We believe in our product and we believe it can truly assist those in need.”
There are Pak Flat Tanks in storage in warehouses around the world, by organisations such as Save The Children, Oxfam, and Rotary. The tank has already been used in response to Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu, Cyclone Winston in Fiji, and in the Itokama region of Papua New Guinea to provide the community with immediate access to water instead of trekking half a kilometre to a well.
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