Introducing Odissi in Senegal: clean water at a press of a button

The Senegalese drinking water enterprise MIYA has officially launched its pilot project Odissi. Supported by Aqua for All, the project aims at installing 18 water ATMs in corner stores in urban and peri-urban areas around Dakar, Mbour and Thiès. These compact mini-filtration stations were developed through technological partnerships with Antunes and CityTaps and have already gone through the pre-test phase with 3 ATMs deployed.

Throughout this pilot, MIYA will evaluate the utility and financial viability of Odissi water kiosks in Senegal by testing different pricing policies, locations, levels of investment and marketing initiatives. Equipped with this knowledge, the enterprise is hoping to realise its ambitious goal – to make affordable drinking water widely available by scaling up to 10 cities with a total of 20.000 units in 5 years.

Odissi stations will be managed remotely and rely on cashless pre-payments from store owners, while MIYA will shoulder the costs of installation and maintenance. By obtaining market insights during this pilot, this business line will have a solid potential for scale.

Established two years ago, MIYA specialises in serving bottled water to middle- and high-income customers. Odissi is their attempt to expand to the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) market and create more social impact. Additionally, a switch to water ATMs is in line with the Senegalese government’s policy on banning plastic sachets by 2025.