Practica

31/05/2026

🌱 Exciting News: Terre365 is officially launched! Farming year-round in Burkina Faso

We are thrilled to announce the official launch of Terre365 – Récolter toute l'année, a 3-year project bringing climate-smart agriculture to smallholder farmers in Burkina Faso! Together with our partners Holland Greentech, FutureWater and Centre Sainte Famille Saaba, we are introducing an integrated package of technologies to transform farming in the Sahel.

The project introduces a complementary set of solutions: the Zainer machine — which mechanizes the traditional Zaï technique — to improve rainwater capture and soil fertility where appropriate, and drip irrigation guided by the digital app in other areas, together making year-round crop production possible. Soil degradation, erratic rainfall and lack of affordable technology are pushing too many smallholder farmers into poverty and driving youth away from agriculture — is here to change that. By creating a local manufacturing plant, a rural service network and hands-on training, we are building a self-sustaining agricultural ecosystem from the ground up.

📊 The project will train 300 farmers and 50 young rural entrepreneurs over 3 years, targeting productivity and income increases of more than 50%.

💰 Supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) under the Impact Clusters Grant Program 2025–2028

🌍 Active in the regions of Yaadga, Kuilsé, Nando and Oubri — some of Burkina Faso's most climate-vulnerable areas — and also in the Kadiogo region, where market gardening activities are also being developed.

We are proud to lead this consortium and grateful to RVO and all partners for making this journey possible. Stay tuned every Tuesday for project updates! 🙌

👉 Read more about the Terre365 project and our work in Burkina Faso 🔗 www.practica.org

HollandGreenTech FutureWater CentreSainteFamillesssaaba Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) | Partner in Sustainable Development

21/05/2026

🚰 Bringing Water Innovation to Madagascar | TokenTap Works! 🌍💧

Welcome to the very first vlog from Ambatofotsy, Madagascar, where Practica is launching the innovative TokenTap prepaid water system! Over the next five months, we’ll take you behind the scenes and share the journey of improving access to safe and reliable drinking water for vulnerable communities.

In this episode, discover how the TokenTap Works! project is creating smarter and more sustainable water access solutions in Madagascar. From local implementation to community impact — this is only the beginning.

This project is being implemented in partnership with GRET and the water network manager 2ADH, with financial support from the AFAS Foundation

🎥 Follow the journey, subscribe for updates, and see how technology and community action come together to make clean water accessible for all.

👉 Learn more about the project:

In many parts of the world, and particularly in Madagascar, drinking water remains a privilege and not a guaranteed right. The numbers speak for themselves:

14/05/2026

Great to be back in Kampala, Uganda 🇺🇬 working alongside the SSWARS team.

During this visit, we delivered follow-up training and supported key equipment upgrades to strengthen pit emptying operations with the PuPu Pump. This work is part of the Sanitation Service Chain Action Research project in 4 countries, implemented with Partners in Development (PID) and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

A key focus was looking ahead towards viable business models for pit emptiers—ensuring services are not only safe, but also financially sustainable and adopted. We also carried out hands-on evaluations of the operational skills to build professional operators. This includes smart ways to clean delivery hoses with a pigging ball and sound understanding of preventing blockages from trash. E.g an air blowback to backwash trash from the suction hose.

Exciting progress was made in piloting a digital monitoring system to track pit emptying volumes, helping generate reliable data for decision-making and performance tracking.

Strong collaboration, practical learning, and continued steps toward scaling safe sanitation services in rapidly growing cities.
More information, check out https://pupu-pump.com/

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07/05/2026

💧 Local businesses powering sustainable irrigation

At Practica, we are witnesses of how supporting the local private sector is key to making irrigation solutions truly work for farmers.

Through our Solar Irrigation Agency (SIA) model, we go beyond introducing technology. We support local agrovets to become service providers, bridging the gap between innovation and farmers in a practical, sustainable way 🤝

A recent example from Mozambique: in Xai-Xai, Ms. Florentina from the SIA Agrovet supported the sale of a solar pump to Mr. Paulo in Zonguene, Gaza Province. But the real value goes beyond the transaction. She guided the installation, explained how to properly maintain the pump to extend its lifespan, and remains the main point of contact for follow-up and instalment payments.

This means Mr. Paulo can now irrigate his rice at a critical moment 🌾 and smoothly transition into horticulture after harvest 🥬, improving both productivity and resilience.

📊 Strong demand for higher flow and reliable irrigation solutions
💰 Access through instalments makes the technology more affordable
🌍 Local service provision ensures long-term sustainability and adoption

This is how we make irrigation systems last: by combining technology with local capacity and trust 💡

This project is funded by a consortium of partners, including the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, implemented within the framework of the Energising Development (EnDev) programme under the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Mozambique and coordinated by Practica.

09/04/2026

👋 Meet Vera van Dijk, exploring laundry challenges in riverine communities for her MSc thesis

Hello, my name is Vera van Dijk and I am very excited to be joining the Practica team for my thesis at Delft University of Technology.

🌎In September 2025, I started a project in Suriname together with three fellow students, focusing on flooding in the inland areas around the Tapanahony River. We stayed in Diitabiki, one of the villages along the river, for seven weeks, where we not only conducted research but also experienced what it means to live in a remote and rural area. This experience sparked my interest in everyday water-related practices in rural environments and directly connects to my current thesis work.

💧 I learned how essential the river is to the local community and experienced firsthand how deeply it is integrated into daily life. We washed ourselves, our dishes, and our clothes in the river and used it for transport, making it part of our everyday routine.

💡When I got in contact with Practica and learned about their Laundry Project, I was immediately interested. In this project, I will explore current laundry practices in riverine communities in Mozambique and India, using these insights to help shape practical, future-focused solutions. These ideas are then tested locally through human-centered design workshops.

🎓This project fits perfectly with the two master’s programs I am combining in my thesis: Integrated Product Design and Environmental Engineering at Delft University of Technology. It brings together both the human and environmental aspects of a problem I have personally come in contact with during my time in Suriname.

I am happy to be part of the Practica team during my thesis and look forward to contributing to meaningful, context-driven solutions together with local communities.

02/04/2026

💧 Water Week in Uganda Highlights: Driving Innovation in (Rural) Water

Last week, Stichting Practica, with our local partner GOAL Uganda, attended World Water Week, hosted by the Ministry of Water and Environment in Uganda. We participated in discussions that highlighted how data-driven solutions are transforming water service delivery in Uganda.

We’re advancing practical innovations that make (rural) water systems more sustainable through:

🔹 TokenTap: A mechanical pre-paid system for rural water points. Simple, durable, and repairable locally, it ensures transparent payments and reliable funds for maintenance without relying on complex electronics. For more information see: https://lnkd.in/e2JV48da

🔹 Tap & Track: A free, open-source app that lets operators monitor water usage, performance, and maintenance in real time. Designed for frontline users, it supports better decision-making and accountability. For more information see: https://lnkd.in/dz6PN6TA

💡 Together: TokenTap secures revenue while Tap & Track provides actionable data— “If data flows, water flows.”

22/03/2026

💧 𝗢𝗻 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗮𝘆, 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 — 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

In many parts of the world, water-related tasks — including laundry — fall disproportionately on women and girls.
Washing clothes is not just a routine chore.

It is time-consuming, physically demanding, and often carried out in unsafe or unhygienic conditions — especially in flood-prone or water-scarce environments.

Yet, laundry remains largely invisible in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) discussions.

To change this, GOPA MetaMeta , together with Practica and partners, is implementing a multi-country program to better understand and transform laundry practices. The seed money for this multi-country program is coming from Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) | Partner in Sustainable Development

🔎 As part of this effort, baseline surveys are being conducted across countries including Mozambique, Bangladesh, Indonesia and India to:
• Understand how women currently manage laundry
• Identify the health, time, and safety challenges they face
• Capture lived experiences, coping strategies, and priorities

💡 Most importantly, this work places women at the centre of the solution.
Through human-centred design approaches, women are not only participants — they are co-creators of solutions that respond to their realities, needs, and aspirations and provide them with entrepreneurial opportunities.

Because achieving gender equality in water means:
✔ Recognizing invisible labour
✔ Designing with women, not for women
✔ Creating solutions that save time, protect health, restore dignity and create entrepreneurial World Wide Youth Opportunities

🌍 This World Water Day, we call for greater attention to the everyday realities of women — and for innovation that starts with their voices.

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20/03/2026

🌱 Scaling Climate-Resilient Farming in Burkina Faso and the region

A recent fieldtrip to Burkina Faso focused on assessing the quality of the first 120 Zainers produced and assembled locally at the Centre Sainte Famille workshop in Ouagadougou. This marks an important milestone in strengthening local production while ensuring high-quality standards are met.

These Zainers will be distributed to cooperatives across the Central and Northern regions, where they will support farmers in creating planting holes for climate-resilient agriculture 🌾.

By improving planting efficiency, the Zainer helps to enhance soil and water management in challenging environments. A strong emphasis was placed on training local staff in quality control, ensuring that each unit meets the required standards before leaving the workshop.

🔧 An additional 48 Zainers are currently under assembly, with some units destined for clients in Mali and Niger.
📊 Local production is now well underway, creating jobs and building technical capacity on the ground.
🚀 Our goal is to reach 1,000 units sold annually in Burkina Faso by 2030.

25/02/2026

🤝Trust Building: The Invisible Investment in Projects

As we adjust the planning and implementation of the Solar Irrigation Agencies (SIAs) in Gaza province, Mozambique, in response to recent extreme weather events, we are reminded that successful technology adoption depends on far more than equipment and financing alone.

Discussions on subsidy levels and capacity development are essential, but without trust among local authorities, service providers, communities, and partners, progress remains fragile.

Trust is built through open dialogue, shared reflection, and the willingness to discuss risks, expectations, and lessons learned. While these “soft” investments are not always visible in reports, they form the backbone of scalable, replicable service-delivery models.

📊 Experience shows that strong collaboration between actors increases adoption rates and long-term functionality of services.
💰 Investing time in relationship-building reduces future inefficiencies, misunderstandings, and costly redesigns.
🌍 Through the SIAs model, we aim to strengthen the local ecosystem to continue delivering solar irrigation technologies to farmers beyond project timelines.

We are encouraged by what is being built in Gaza and grateful to the partners who believe in this approach. Sustainable impact starts with strong partnerships.

This project is implemented within the framework of the Energising Development (EnDev) programme, funded by a consortium of partners, including the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken/Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Norwegian Ministry of foreign affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) , and coordinated by Practica

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09/02/2026

🚽 Scaling Market-Based Sanitation in Southern Madagascar

Practica is supporting the rollout of Market-Based Sanitation (MBS) in southern Madagascar by strengthening local sanitation businesses

Together with 15 latrine business operators, we provide technical training, product development and business coaching across

📍 Toliara | Fort-Dauphin | Ambovombe | Farafangana

In just 2 months:

✅ 500+ toilets sold
✅ Products starting at €15
✅ Local jobs created
✅ More families accessing safe sanitation

When local markets work, sanitation scales.