The Invention Stories Podcast

Episode 35…Guido van Hofwegen and the Nazava Water Filter


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Guido van Hofwegen is the co-founder and director of Nazava Water Filters. Their mission is  to provide safe and affordable drinking water to everybody everywhere by selling the most affordable and best water purifier system. Nazava’s base is in Indonesia, a country with 250 million people. They sell their award-winning technology locally and abroad. Guido is passionate about selling the Nazava Water Filters because they make peoples lives healthier and more convenient.
 
Background
Guido was born in Fryslân, a province in the northwest of the Netherlands. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, and south of the North Sea. So in 2010, the province had a population of 646,000 and a total area of 5,100 km2(2,000 sq mi).  So where he grew up, there was plenty of fresh water to drink.  And had he stayed in the Netherlands, wouldn’t have created the best water purifier system, Nazava Water Filters.
 
Passions
Guido is fan of ice skating and cycling (both for fun and for commuting). So he is a proud graduate of Wageningen University (64th best university according to World University Rankings and one of the best Agricultural universities in the world) where he studied tropical land use. This might seem far of his current occupation but both are about basic needs. During his studies Guido became aware that the best technological improvements for smallholder farmers should be labor saving first, income generating second and risk reducing third. He’s applied these same principals when developing the best water purifier, Nazava Water filter.
 
Resilience BV
In 2004, he co-founded Resilience BV, a consultancy specializing in water and agribusiness solutions.   They have implemented a wide range of studies and projects in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America as a result.  And their mission is to assist farmers, companies, and governments in developing innovation solutions.
So they began working on projects on the mysterious super-fertile soils in the Amazon (Terra Preta) and the dynamics of the poverty spiral in Sub Sahara Africa. After starting Nazava, Guido has been only involved as the financial manager for Resilience BV. Happily Resilience won a large grant to start selling the best water purifier, Nazava Water filters in Ethiopia.
 
Relocating to Indonesia
Guido moved to Banda Aceh, Indonesia from the Netherlands in 2007 with his wife to work with NGOs.  So immediately, he learned the difficulties of obtaining clean, drinking water. “It’s expensive to buy water by the gallon for a dispenser at home or to boil water using a kerosene (or gas) stove. There are stations to get clean water from, but the quality is not so good. He learned what a hassle it is to transport water from the station with a bicycle, especially if you don’t live near a station.
 
Six Years Ago
We first shared Water Water Everywhere…GO AHEAD AND DRINK EVERY DROP! back on November 7, 2011.  So click here to read.  We would like to thank Guido Von Hofwegen for sharing his story back in 2011 and allowing us to interview him on the Invention Stories Podcast.

The Invention Stories Podcast
In Conclusion, I want to thank Guido van Hofwegen for allowing us to interview him. He shares the struggles and opportunities of creating and selling the most affordable and best water purifier system to everyone.
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The Invention Stories PodcastBy The Invention Stories Podcast