Solvatten

02/09/2026

The Hot Water Question #7: Can we measure the difference?

A family gets access to safe, hot water at home.

Perhaps they spend less time heating water, use less firewood and find everyday hygiene easier. Perhaps children miss fewer days of school and parents fewer days of work.

All of this matters. But if we want hot water to become part of a wider WASH and global health conversation, we also need evidence.

This is why the planned Solvatten Health Study in Wagve, Kenya, will look beyond access to water itself.

With 360 households, we want to study changes in hygiene practices, water and hygiene-related illnesses, days lost from school and work, and time and fuel use. We will also explore whether the health impact can be expressed in DALYs, Disability-Adjusted Life Years, a measure used to understand the burden of disease.

Because perhaps the question is no longer only:

What difference does safe, hot water make?

Perhaps we also need to ask:

Can we measure that difference?

This is where The Hot Water Question becomes a research question.

31/08/2026

The Hot Water Question #6: Neglected Tropical Diseases

Some diseases receive far less attention than the number of people affected by them would suggest.

Neglected Tropical Diseases, NTDs, affect communities where access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene is often limited. Conditions such as trachoma, schistosomiasis and intestinal worm infections are closely connected to the wider WASH environment.

This makes everyday hygiene important. Washing hands and bodies, cleaning clothes and caring for skin and wounds all depend on having enough safe water available.

But there is something we know much less about.

Does having reliable access to safe, hot water at home make a difference?

This is one of the questions we want to explore in the Solvatten Health Study in Wagve, Kenya, where we will look at water and hygiene-related illnesses alongside changes in everyday hygiene practices. Because sometimes an important piece of knowledge starts with asking a question that hasn't been asked enough.

Along the shores of Lake Victoria, daily contact with untreated water is also linked to the spread of NTD´s such as schistosomiasis. Access to safe, hot water at home could reduce the need for some of that contact, adding another important dimension to the Hot water question.

27/08/2026

The Hot Water Question #5: Who pays for hot water?

Hot water is never really free.

For most of us, the cost appears on an energy bill and we rarely give it much thought. But in a home without running water or electricity, the cost can be measured in something else: time.

Time spent collecting water. Time gathering or buying firewood. Time lighting a fire and waiting for the water to heat. And in many parts of the world, that time belongs mainly to women and girls.

This is an important part of the hot water question.

Because when the sun can both purify and heat the water, it is not only fuel that can be saved. It may also free up time for work, school, family or simply other parts of life.

What is the value of time when you no longer have to spend it heating water?

The Hot Water Question is also a question about women's time.

26/08/2026

The Hot Water Question #4: Menstrual Health

Menstrual health is about much more than access to menstrual products. It is also about privacy, dignity and having the water and facilities needed to manage menstruation safely and comfortably.

For many women and girls, this means washing themselves, their clothes and reusable menstrual products in homes where water first has to be collected, carried and sometimes heated over a fire.

We know that access to water, sanitation and hygiene is an important part of menstrual health. But when we talk about WASH and menstruation, hot water is rarely part of the conversation.

Perhaps it should be.

What could reliable access to safe, hot water at home mean for menstrual health, comfort and dignity?

Another question worth asking.

The Hot Water Question.

25/08/2026

The Hot Water Question #3: The missing H in WASH

When we talk about WASH, we talk about access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. We measure whether water is available, whether it is safe to drink and whether people have access to basic sanitation and handwashing facilities.

These are fundamental questions, and for billions of people they are still far from being answered.

But there is another aspect of water that we rarely talk about: temperature.

For many of us, HOT water is so closely connected to hygiene that we hardly think about it. We use it to wash ourselves, clean our homes, prepare food and care for our children. Yet for families without running water or energy to heat it, hot water can require time, fuel and work every single day. The price to add fuel and also cook the water for hygien purposes will then be to high.

So perhaps there is another question worth adding to the WASH conversation:

What difference does access to safe, hot water at home make?

At Solvatten, we believe this question deserves more attention. Not because we have all the answers, but because we want to understand them.

That is The Hot Water Question.

21/08/2026

The Hot Water Question #2
The First 1,000 Days of a childs life

From the beginning of pregnancy until a child turns two, the first 1,000 days are considered one of the most important periods for a child's health and development.

During these months and years, so much of a child's wellbeing depends on the everyday care around them. Safe water and good hygiene are part of that care, from preparing food and washing hands to bathing a baby and keeping the home and utensils clean.

For many of us, hot water is simply there when we need it. For a mother in a home without running water or electricity, every litre may first need to be collected and then heated over a fire, requiring both time and fuel. This mother might even be demanded to bring a flask with boiled water to the maternity ward to ensure her new born child is safe.

We know how important WASH is during the first 1,000 days. But there is still a question we believe deserves more attention:

What difference could access to safe, hot water at home make for mothers and young children?

Another part of The Hot Water Question.

19/08/2026

The Hot Water Question #1
Summer often makes us appreciate a slightly simpler way of living.

At a summerhouse or on an Island in the Stockholm archipelago, we don't mind carrying water or washing the dishes in a basin. It becomes part of summer life and reminds us of something we rarely think about at home: how much we rely on having hot water whenever we need it.

On several islands in the Stockholm archipelago, families use Solvatten to get safe, hot water at their summerhouses. It makes everyday life easier, whether it's for doing the dishes, washing hands or taking care of other daily needs.

But for millions of families around the world, living without hot water is not just a summer experience. It is everyday life.

In a rural village in Kenya, the same ten litres of safe, hot water can make daily routines around hygiene, cooking and caring for children easier and safer.

Different places, different realities, but a need we can all relate to.

We talk a lot about access to safe water. As we approach World Water Week, we want to add another question to the conversation:

What about hot water?

Over the coming weeks, we will explore The Hot Water Question and what access to safe, hot water at home can mean for health, hygiene and everyday life.

conversation

24/06/2026

Always a mood changer when the Solvatten smiley says "CLICK". Make this to a great day and remember to SMILE!

Like Solvatten, share and support our work with a simple "SWISH"

22/06/2026

25/05/2026

For families in Malawi, clean warm water should not depend on firewood.

From Malawi, with proof. This is how families are using Solvatten: sunlight, water, time saved, less fuel, safer warm water at home.

For the Malawian diaspora, this is one of the most concrete ways to support home. One family. One daily need. One solution powered by the sun.

Who should see this in your Malawi network?