Affordable off-grid washing machine

Global omni-channel provider of product and service solutions RS Group is in the second year of its three-year social impact partnership with The Washing Machine Project Foundation, a global charity that combines innovation and sustainable engineering to provide displaced and low-income communities with an accessible, affordable off-grid washing solution.

The company explains that it has rallied staff, customers and suppliers around the world to pledge support, with donations in the first year of the partnership amounting to R4 173 514.08, including a corporate donation of R1 857 022.32.

RS Group has also provided parts for the construction of the Divya 1.5, the latest version of the manual-crank washing machine. The Divya is said to be easy to maintain, requires no electricity, and uses 50% less water than handwashing, reducing the time spent on this backbreaking task by 75%. This aims to enable women and girls who typically spend upwards of 20 hours per week washing in rivers and lakes to access work and education.

The company highlights that its employees have volunteered more than 500 hours of their time to assist with the assembly and deployment of 140 machines to refugee camps in Iraq and Lebanon, helping to improve the lives of an estimated 1 350 people. The company will be stepping up its efforts this year by providing space and volunteers for the assembly of another 290 machines for delivery to communities in the Congo, Jordan and Uganda, as well as further orders to Iraq.

From a South African perspective, University of Cape Town student Kai Goodall, beat thousands of entries globally to win the People.Planet.Product challenge. Launched early last year in collaboration with The Washing Machine Project, the challenge tasked student members of the DesignSpark engineering community to apply original thinking and practical skills to the ongoing development of The Washing Machine Project’s first water-saving off-grid manual crank-handle washing machine, the Divya.

Goodall’s ‘Pedal n Spin’ design is a foot-cranked washing machine that rotates easily using a combination of the principle of a treadle system and pedal system. It is a pedal-powered, connected rod driven rotating drum washing machine system that is purely mechanical in nature. It is designed to improve the user’s posture, ease of use, and sustainability of the current Divya washing machine, allowing longer-term adoption, improved hygiene, and increased rotation efficiency with a huge mechanical advantage.