About the Springboard Programme
The Youth SDG innovation platform for Asia-Pacific
Business Developer
Maartje Pronk
Co-Founder(s)
Joke LE POOLE (Chair of the Board), Imam Mahmud RIAD (Managing Director)
About Us
Max TapWater connects households to safe, easy and affordable water through piped water grids. We build and operate small-scale water grids that connect up to 75 households each with safe, running water at home. We are a social, safe water enterprise operating in rural and peri-urban market of the coastal zone of Bangladesh. With Max TapWater connections, we improve access to safe water and also address the burden of water collection that is faced by women and girls in rural Bangladesh.
Max TapWater was established in 2019. So far we have built 20 grids and are supplying safe water to 4,900 users. Each household pays us a monthly tariff to ensure that running costs can be maintained. In time, the tariffs also recover the original investment in the water infrastructure. This means that Max TapWater will be able to reinvest the profit into building new infrastructure in surrounding communities, thus scaling safe water access all over Bangladesh. In this way, we will reach our vision of a future Bangladesh where everyone has access to safe, running water at home.
Our Impact
We have built 20 piped water grids in 2021 and through those we connected around 1,050 households. This means that currently 4,900 users are enjoying sufficient safe water every day. It also means that in every household, the women and girls are saving 90 minutes every day on water collection. They no longer have to walk, queue and pump for water – and they are using this time for other productive purposes like studying and income generation. We’re still signing up new customers every day and have already planned the next 25 grids to be built later on this year.
Primary Beneficiary
TESTIMONIAL
Youth Co:Lab Cohort
2021
"Being part of Youth Co:Lab Bangladesh programme was an incredible experience for us. The trainings were really instructive and helped us to improve our pitching skills a lot. We also loved connecting to the other social businesses, learning from their stories and forging new relations. The highlight of the Programme has been that it was able to connect us to the Bangladesh government and put our business into the limelight with national government. Social water business is a new phenomenon in Bangladesh and we need to build an enabling ecosystem to help water business flourish at the local level. The government is an important stakeholder in that process and through Youth Co:Lab we were able to start the discussion with them on how they can support businesses like us."
Currently Looking For
