WHC Leak-Less Valve

Paseka Lesolang is an enthusiastic and an innovative visionary — Committed to progressive development and passionate about environmental sustainability. Paseka has a commerce background and been part of several entrepreneurial ventures. During that experience, he learnt about entrepreneurship, such as commitment to purpose, environmental social project management, focus, prioritization, leadership, the value of time and money. Throughout his experiences he has demonstrated perseverance in the face of adversity and constantly overcomes obstacles, especially in WHC (Water Hygiene Convenience), as the CEO and lead inventor of his business, which he has nurtured with passion and dedication since its inception in 2007; when he invented its benchmark product. He has been featured in major publications and embraced several international platforms. Among the accolades and honors; he is a Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) Alumi and currently the Global Water Partnership (GWP) Southern Africa Coordinator on Youth, Innovation, Jobs and Industrialization.

According to South Africa’s (SA) Department of Water & Sanitation; SA’s water consumption might exceed availability of supply by 2025. The US Environmental Protection Agency, and SA Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, state that toilet leaks waste approximately 60000 gallons every year. SA has approximately 12 million toilets.

The toilet is the single largest water consumer in the house, consuming approximately 28% of all the usage. Toilets inevitably leak, wasting 8 to 184 gallons a day. To address this problem WHC has developed the WHC Leak-Less Valve™, it is a patented water control device that can detect leaks and save up to 70% of water lost through leaks.

Through our project, youth and woman of the communities we intervene, are trained to be certified plumbers to assemble, install and maintain the WHC Leak-Less Valve™. Therefore, we create jobs, save water and promote hygiene, through the WHC Leak-Less Valve™. 

The problem we are addressing is the growing water scarcity and the water losses, especially through toilet leaks. Including unemployment among youth and women. These problems are evident in SA and around the world.

Drought and poor water service delivery is already constraining economic growth and hampering livelihoods. If we take into consideration SA’s population growth projections, the water demand is expected to exceed supply by 17% in 2030. Water losses in SA amount to over US$625 million every year, due to aging infrastructure with insufficient maintenance, as per the limited resource. Yet SA is the 30th driest country in the world, signifying a global problem.

According to the Constitution of SA; “Everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water.” At least 6 cubic meters (kl) of water has to be availed per month to the indigents, for free. However, somebody has to pay for this water. According to Statistics South Africa, there are 3.51 million indigent households.

Therefore, with the already high and increasing unemployment rate; as the cost of water increases, the number of households that register as indigents will increase. This will increase the financial burden and water demand on the country. 

Our project is about saving water lost through toilet leaks in the communities, by installing an innovative water saving device in toilets.  The product is called the WHC Leak-Less Valve™.  The youth and women, including the disabled candidates of the community, are enrolled into 3 particular trainings; 1) Basic Plumbing Training (including the assembly and installation of the WHC Leak-Less Valve™) 2) Entrepreneurship Training 3) Climate Change and Water Conservation training (now including COVID protocols).

We manufacture our product locally, then set up an assembly plant in the communities we intervene, as the basis of skills development and job creation. After the training, the candidates (specifically the disabled) assemble the product and then the youth and women enter the community to make the communities aware of the importance of water conservation and to install the WHC Leak-Less Valves™ in households. After the project, the candidates use the skills acquired to be self-sustainable as entrepreneurs and/or form part of our database of certified plumbers for the maintenance of and in other projects.

Private companies can use their CSI (Corporate Social Investment) funds to sponsor our project, which covers all the line items to successfully execute the project for envisaged impact.

To illustrate our project better; in 2015, we conducted a project for the City of Tshwane (CoT) municipality. We trained 20 youth and women from the community to be certified plumbers and created jobs for them, by tasking them to assemble and install the WHC Leak-Less Valves™ in 1000 houses within the community. 

Through this particular impact, not only did we help the municipality achieve behavioral change of the community, but we also managed to save them a minimum of US$21176 per year in direct savings. According to the East Rand Water Treatment (ERWAT) company; for every 1 mega liter (1 million liters) that enters the sanitation network, it requires the municipality US$588235 to treat and redistribute the water back into the reticulation network (i.e. chemicals, labour, energy, logistics etc.). 

Through our impact, we saved over 60 mega liters to date; contributing to the indirect savings that we also helped the municipality to achieve. The project also involved the community; giving the community responsibility, based on the three concepts of Participation, namely; (i) informative participation, (ii) consultative participation and (iii) decisional participation. Through this project they community started valuing water more and paying their bills more frequent than before.

CoT’s purpose was to assess the feasibility and demonstrate benefits of a smart home solution for reducing consumption of water and associated costs, to achieve the following:

1) Demonstrate water loss attributable to leaks.

2) Highlight the fiscal burden of costly water bills due to unnoticed and preventable leaks.

3) Inform policy and decision-makers regarding the potential use and/or larger scale rollout of such a solution within CoT.

4) To involve the community, to take responsibility.

The project’s impact outcomes classified our intervention as an undisputed success; a flagship project to pathways of improving collaboration between policy, science and communities. 

Once upon a time, I was seated in my grandmother’s house in Pretoria. I heard an annoying hissing sound coming from the toilet. I approached the toilet and closed the tap. The sound stopped. Logic prevailed that the water caused this sound. I started wondering why this sound did not stop automatically. Considering my grandmother’s financial constrains; getting a plumber was not an option and this leak was increasing my grandmother’s water bill. Thus, I had to apply my mind.  

I started consulting with plumbers and engineers, I conducted online and offline research.  I found out that a leaking toilet can waste anything between 8 to 184 gallons of water a day.

After consulting with my neighbors, various people in different income levels with different toilets and most of them were used to the annoying hissing toilet sound. It was without a doubt that my grandmother was just one of many experiencing the same plight.  I then realized that we have a silent big problem, but instead of complaining about it, I decided to find a solution. I sketched a rough solution of how the problem could be resolved. To my surprise; it was an invention and my journey began…

Considering my grandmother’s financial constrains; getting a plumber was not an option to fix the leaking toilet, which was increasing my grandmother’s water bill.

Escalating bills had a direct correlation to my grandmother’s blood pressure.  Therefore, I took it upon myself to find a solution as a remedy to reduce my grandmother’s water bills, but most importantly to preserve my grandmother’s health. My grandmother always stressed about how she could not afford to cover bread-and-butter issues with the marginal state grant (US$110 per month) that we were living on; let alone the escalating water bill. From my grandmother’s interactions with her peers and the rollcall of indigents in SA; it was without a doubt that my grandmother was just one of many who experience the same plight.

Furthermore, SA like many other countries, is facing a water crises and many of the youth are unemployed. Not to mention many other socioeconomic ills that are contributed by the water situation, considering that water is not a sector, but a connector.  

I have a commerce background and am solutions oriented; this project is the best way to apply my knowledge, passion and commitment to contribute to society, the environment and economy. 

I am passionate about water security and approach this challenge as a social technopreneur. I have participated in a Business Administration Learnership, have done a course in Advanced Entrepreneurship at the University of Pretoria. I am a BCom Management Degree candidate at the University of South Africa. I have also enrolled for several short courses ranging from Water Efficiency Management to Carbon Footprint Analytics, including a Project Management course at IE Business School in Madrid, Spain.

I have been part of several entrepreneurial ventures, in founding and strategic positions. Among others, at age 20 I co-founded a photo company that served over 500 customers while I managed it.

Currently, I coordinate the Youth, Innovation, Job Creation and Industrialization for Global Water Partnership Southern Africa.  Where I am overseeing projects in the Water, Energy and Food (WEF) sectors, initiated and executed by the youth in the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region, with 16 Country Representatives reporting to me on the projects. I leverage the Country Representatives in document preparation, fund raising, project managing, monitoring and evaluation of the impact of all the projects in their counties.  Through this role, we established the SADC Youth WEF Innovation Network (SAYWIN).   

Among several platforms, I presented SAYWIN at the Joint Meeting Of SADC Ministers Responsible for Energy and Water, which took place on the 20-24 May 2019 in Windhoek, Namibia.  The ministers unanimously agreed to take a decision, to adopt the SAYWIN programme and ensure the further roll out therefore. 

• Brewing community/political conflicts and plots to sabotage the project. Including serious threats to all team members.

In such situations; we would verify the information.  Then we informed the municipality and advised the team members to remain safe at home.

• Execution activities delayed, due to the high unavailability of confirmed available households.

We would return at a later stage. Should the unavailability persist for 3 consecutive returns; we would move to other houses and inform the municipality about our attempts.

• The status of over 70% of the toilets that were attended to, were inadequate and required substantial iterations beyond our scope of work and budget.

To ensure the impact of the project was achieved, we would go the extra mile; utilizing our own (company funds) beyond the budget we received from the municipality to accomplish the task.

• Some households that had the ultrasonic meters installed in their houses, started panicking when the meter ran while their toilet was not in use {indicating a leak}

We had to constantly reassure them that we will fix their situation and save them money. However, we needed them to observe the loss of water, which was the basis of our intervention. 

From being concerned about a leaking toilet in my grandmother’s house, I managed to take this enterprise from the garage to a multinational award-winning endeavor that thrives in socioeconomic and environmental promise.   

Not only were the 20 members of the community trained to be certified plumbers; they were also equipped with Climate Change and water conservation knowledge.  Thus, they educated the community and every household they installed the WHC Leak-Less Valve™ in, about its impact as an Eco-Conscious Sub-Conscious technology (it does not distract the lifestyle of the users and it saves water without them being aware). The community heeded the call, not only did they start to appreciate water more, they started to pay their water bills more frequently too.  The community members also expressed their gratitude for my pioneering spirit to lead the youth and all stakeholders to this level.

Therefore, through this particular impact, we helped the municipality achieve the behavioral change of the community and also managed to surpass the envisaged resilience impact of the project. It is this behavioral change, beyond the efficacy of the product, which demonstrates my leadership ability and will ensure that the change that was created through my leadership, continues.

Our research and consultation with toilet manufactures (i.e. Dutton Plastic Engineering, Parker Plastics, TOTO etc.) proved that toilets depreciate and inevitably leak. The WHC Leak-Less Valve™ is a totally disruptive water loss prevention technology in the toilet industry. It is a patented water control device that is easily retrofitted onto conventional toilets; it can also be built-in before-sales by the toilet manufacturers. It can be designed differently for different toilet models. It is a multinational award winning product that is inexpensive than buying a new toilet.

Those who do not have the means and/or are oblivious to the leaking toilet, do not prioritize fixing the leak, thus leading to substantial water losses. The nature of this leak is that it is not clearly visible to the naked eye; therefore, it is a silent big problem. Our project addresses this problem and involves all stakeholders. The rollout of our project, creates a new dimension of performance which is intriguing for other environmental/ water conscious entities; leading to additional leverage (Public Private Partnerships) for effective execution to achieve the desired impact. 

The City of Tswhane’s Smart City department considers this project “…a smart solution that enhances South Africa to a 1st World Country”, because it demonstrates the benefits of a smart home solution for low-to-middle income areas while incorporating the community, creating jobs, saving water and leveraging service delivery. This project can be scaled to reduce the non-revenue water account and unemployment of the country. This is what makes the project innovative.

Our Activities Leading To Immediate Outputs:

We developed a sustainable community driven water saving project, inspired by the SASOL and GIZ’s “Boloka Metsi Project” that won the Water Management Award in the 2013 Mail & Guardian Greening the Future Awards. However, we go the extra mile to ensure the theory of change, by enrolling the youth and women of a community into 3 particular trainings; 1) Basic Plumbing Training, 2) Entrepreneurship Training, 3) Climate Change and Water Conservation training (now including COVID protocols). We manufacture our product locally at our plant, then set up assembly plants in the communities we intervene, as the basis of skills development and job creation.

Longer-Term Outcomes for the Community:

• All general labour is sourced from within the communities where the project is conducted.
• The communities are imparted with technologies and awareness of its impact in their homes, making them sub-conscious coconscious participants. 
• Community households save money/reduce their water bills.
• The community takes responsibility of the project, based on the three concepts of Participation.
• Communities value water more and pay their bills more frequent than before.
• This avails more funds to the municipality to address other water security and service delivery issues within the community.
• Community advocate for the project and its scaling

Third-Party Research, Findings from a Pilot and Impact Evaluation:

The products’ efficacy is proven and validated by the University of Johannesburg, Kamstrup, the Water Research Commission (WRC) and the Resolution Circle indicating that it has a lifespan of 3 to 5 years and saves on average 68.42% of water lost every day. The project’s impact has been evaluated, endorsed and acknowledged by various local and international institutions i.e. SABS (South African Bureau of Standards), Department of Water and Sanitation, GIZ, Standard Bank etc. indicating that on average 20 jobs can be created for the youth, women and disabled for every 1000 units of the product installed in the community. Including the fact that for every 1 job created in the community, at least 4 more people benefit indirectly from it.

Our project has created jobs, directly affected and currently serves 30 people.

Our initiative also influenced water-related decisions of 4 other municipalities to engage us on the scaling of this impact, including the improvement of their water infrastructure. We are thus currently finalizing 3 other projects that could result in the creation of jobs and directly serving 100 to 400 people in a year. Our project is eligible to scale and South Africa has over 200 municipalities, most of which are conducive for this project. Therefore, we intend to attend to at least 10 other municipalities in 5 years. This could result in the creation of jobs and directly affecting 1000 to 20 000 people

Our goals within the next year are:

• To conclude on the next 3 pending projects
• To serve and create jobs for at least 100 people
• To save at least 730 mega litres of water per year
• To introduce a new water securing innovations and services

We plan to achieve the above goals through:

• Collaborate with strategic partners
• Recruitment of other relevant staff for key responsibilities/tasks
• More efficient communication with all stakeholders involved.
• Better project management, monitoring and evaluation of the project.
• Doing all that is within my control to ensure that there is constant and increasing momentum to achieving the goals.
• Continue the research and development of envisaged innovations
• Acquire sufficient resources to execute the goals.
• Swifter execution of projects
• Recruitment of other relevant staff for key responsibilities/tasks
• Involve other strategic partners.
• More efficient communication with all stakeholders involved.
• Better project management, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of the projects.
• Taking action upon all situations within our control to ensure that there is constant and increasing momentum to achieving the goals.
• Continue the research and development of envisaged innovations
• Acquire sufficient resources to execute the goals.

Our goals within the next five years are:

• To scale the project in 10 other municipalities
• To serve and create jobs for at least 1000 people
• To save at least 50 000 mega liters of water per year
• To introduce a new water securing innovation
• To prepare/start scaling the impact in other countries

We plan to achieve the above five year goals through:

• Limited resources to access market: We have insufficient financial resources to effectively advance as an entity to create the envisaged impact.
• No dedicated Sales team to capitalize opportunities: we have other prospects for the projects and multiple income streams with our innovation. However, we are challenged in accessing the prospects and exploring the avenues effectively; due to the lack of competent and dedicated personnel for this task.
• Organized chaos, limited competence and compromised integrity: we are spread too thin, multitasking and not mastering key aspects of the business most of the time. This leads to unsatisfied clients and prolonged execution of projects.  
• Lack of systems and skills to automate business processes: many mandate tasks could be automated to improve efficiency. However, we do not have the skillset and technical aptitude to create the envisaged business systems.
• Insufficient sales and marketing initiatives: We have insufficient effective marketing initiatives that should be driving the sales.
• Delayed Research and Development (R&D) of follow-up products: We rely on freelancing subject matter experts who prioritize their other interests over ours.
• Delayed implementation of projects: Our stakeholders have very long protocols that have to be observed before key decisions are made and communication between us is weeks apart.

Limited resources to access market:

We reinvest all proceeds we make through the project, in order to have the resources required to increase our momentum into the market. We are also raising funds to this extent.

No dedicated Sales team to capitalize opportunities:

We are accommodating all individuals that are keen to take on the task for a commission. We will also recruit and remunerate (basic salary) full time staff, who will be more committed to the task and can be held accountable for the set targets.

Organized chaos, limited competence and compromised integrity:

As part of the raised funds we are pursuing, we will recruit and remunerate the staff that are more competent and committed to the critical tasks we are currently doing an injustice to.

Lack of systems and skills to automate business processes:

Among the service providers that we can hire and/or staff we are going to recruit, will be one that can create the systems to automate the business.

Delayed R&D of follow-up products:

Once we acquire the financial resources, we will be able to replace the current service provider for a more dedicated one, to expedite the process and eventually have a staff member competent to execute the R&D role in-house.

Delayed implementation of projects:

We will encourage stakeholders to commit to a shorter turnaround time (wherever and whenever possible). We will also do by all means to improve the internal and external communication to be more efficient, trusting that all stakeholders will act accordingly. 

• WRP: They are a water engineering consultancy company that specializes in water security projects. WRP does our project management and water saving reporting.
• Uros: Is a Finnish water technologies company that specializes in digitalisation to various verticals with a unique ecosystem of IoT technologies and Smart Connectivity. Uros does our bulk water infrastructure monitoring and reporting.
• Kamstrup: is a manufacturer and supplier of intelligent water meters and remote reading systems to analytics and services Kampsrup suppliers us with the residential water meters that deliver high-quality reliable consumption data.
• Harambee: It is a non-profit empowerment entity that is a place that prepares youth mentally and physically for the work place.  It is responsible for sourcing the ideal candidates for our projects.
• EWSETA: It is the Energy Water SETA that is responsible for certify candidates that have successfully completed training in the energy and/or water sector. EWSETA accredits the our outsourced trainers and grants certificates for our candidates.  
• Standard Bank: It is one of the top 5 commercial banks in South Africa. It provides entrepreneurship training and free bank accounts for our candidates. 

Collectively private and public institutions offers the potential for us to scale the projects within their sectors.

Water disruptions present a different risk profile for schools and hospitals. While a lack of water at school poses a sanitary problem, hospitals have to ensure a rapid, and appropriate response during water disruptions, to minimize possible disruption to essential care services. Thus, water conservation is key to reduce a facility’s water consumption, taking into consider the number of toilet cisterns and daily flushes at such public institutions. Retrofitting the LLV makes perfect sense, as it prevents water volume losses amounting to kiloliters during a monthly cycle, and these water-savings lead to improved management of water utilities expenses.

Private companies can use their CSI (Corporate Social Investment) funds to sponsor our project, which covers all the line items to successfully execute the project for envisaged impact.

Furthermore, we have 3 other income streams with the product i.e. 1) Selling to retailers, 2) Selling directly to property owners and managers, 3) Selling directly to contractors. 

The above will help us expand and create more impact.