Esther Nanyonga

A Ugandan social entrepreneur creating low-cost water filtration systems to combat water scarcity.

Esther Nanyonga founded Pure Water Projects in 2018 to address Uganda’s water crisis, where 20M people lack safe drinking water. Her innovation, the "Solar Still", uses solar energy to evaporate and condense contaminated water into potable supplies. Each unit costs $150 – 90% cheaper than commercial systems – and serves 50 people daily. By 2024, her initiative had provided clean water to 500,000 Ugandans in rural regions.

Nanyonga’s approach integrates community education, training locals in maintenance and repair through workshops. Her partnership with UNICEF expanded access to schools, installing 1,200 units in 2022 alone. A 2023 study in Science Advances validated her design’s effectiveness, achieving 99.9% pathogen removal.

Nanyonga’s TED Talk "How we can end water poverty" highlights the economic impact of water-borne diseases, which cost Uganda $1B annually in lost productivity. She faces criticism for limited urban focus, but her "Water Equity" initiative (launched 2024) now targets peri-urban slums using mobile filtration trucks. Collaborations with Microsoft’s AI for Earth program optimize distribution networks using machine learning.