Affordable catamaran boats for inland water transport

Over 30 million people around Lake Victoria rely on it for access to basic goods and social services. However, the transport network linking the islands to the mainland is in a dire state; characterized by old and dilapidated wooden mono-hulled boats that are slow, unstable on water, unsheltered and last only two years!

This prevents access to social, health, economic and educational services by the locals living on islands. Quality health services such as immunization and family planning are not provided. Economic activities are affected resulting to low income for families, children drop out of school, engage in early marriages and vices such as prostitution and theft.

Kata Marine Innovation Group has developed affordable catamaran boats made from bamboo grown by the locals, have better stability on waves, are sheltered from bad weather, can last up to ten years; making them economical to operate and earn a sustainable living. 

Poor inland water transport network which prevents access to basic social services for people living on islands in Africa. Kalangala island  on Lake Victoria is the largest with over 65,000 people yet is only served by one ferry which is unreliable as it frequently breaks down. Most of the major services are found on the mainland which means people at the islands have to cross to the mainland to access them. However, very many boats capsize during this process especially during harsh weather and strong waves.

Our target population includes local rural communities on islands of Lake Victoria, tourism industry, local fishing communities and other groups such as government agencies, travel agencies and individuals.

We have interacted with the locals about the challenges they currently face, the tour and travel companies are willing and ready to purchase the boats, government will easily be persuaded to establish supporting systems with the private sector inclusion in developing the community.

We are building catamaran boats made out of bamboo grown by the local rural community. These are more durable, have better stability on water to minimize capsizing, have navigation systems, are sheltered from rain enabling them to operate all year round providing a reliable network for shared prosperity. 

Our solution uses modern boat building catamaran architecture using low-cost, eco-friendly and readily available bamboo products and recycled plastic to foster community inclusion in tackling social inequity.

We also utilize embedded micro-controller systems for navigation support such as GPS and radar and emergency contact incase of any occurence. We also utilize a redesigned production process using a locally available labor force to process bamboo to last longer for use in boat building. 

We exploit two technologies in our solution;

• Catamaran technology: This design has been proven to have better stability on water due to its double-hulled design in that if one side of the boat is hit by a wave, the effect is counteracted by the other pontoon hence minimizing the possibilty of capsizing and eliminating sea sickness. This technology is also energy efficient as it allows the boat to cut-through water much faster with minimal resistance due to its more streamlined nature compared to the monohulled boat design.

• Bamboo use: This is green technology with multiple uses and the ability to combat climate change, desertification and poverty. Bamboo products are long lasting, recyclable and can replace a variety of emissions-intensive materials such as PVC, steel and aluminium. The presence of bamboo in E.Africa provides an economic resource which we shall harness to build durable products.

Many have tried to solve the problem and failed to deliver for example water bus company which provided fibre glass ferries to supplement those run by the government but ran out of business because of high operational costs yet their boats were very expensive for the locals to afford. For four years, we have studied the failures of those that have attempted, interacted with the local communities to better understand their challenges to detail and the solution is to provide affordable mass produced fuel-efficient low-cost bamboo catamaran boats that are easy to maintain. These boats have low operational costs, can last up to ten years and can be navigated to all islands unlike ferries that only operate specific routes to major islands with docks.

We are currently developing prototypes and still running them through marine laboratory tests. We shall serve at least 6,000 people in the next year and over 5 million in 5 years. 

In the short term, to finish laboratory testing and prototyping of our models. We also want to build the full scale catamaran boats ready for transport.

In the next five years, we plan to;

- Expand in building a factory for mass production of these boats; 

- Have an out growers farmers scheme to plant bamboo; 

- Employ over 5000 people either directly or indirectly working in but not limited to bamboo growing, water transport, fishing, tourism and trade;

- Scale out our business to other African countries.

We are financially constrained to build the full scale boats and doing real world test-sails.   

When we win the Solve MIT prize, we shall invest in building the first full scale boat and have test sails on Lake Victoria. It will be a stepping stone to convince the East African regional countries to co-operate in building docks for the larger boats to operate because we will have offered a cost friendly alternative to navigating the Lake Victoria waters. 

We are currently engaging the forestry officials in our country to encourage bamboo growing through sensitizing communities on the various bamboo benefits and providing them with seedlings. 

We are a team of 4 people; Eng. Omala Joel, a marine and ship building engineer with over 20-year experience; Mwesigwa Jonah, a statistician and data analyst; Balinda Roland Mujungu, an electrical and electronics engineer; and Mayanja Joshua Absolom, an architect.

We are a team mixed with both experience in marine ship building and young potential in design and engineering.We boast of a 20-year experience in designing, building and maintaining boats; and a 4-year experience in working with practical electronics and embedded systems used in building automated devices.

More so, we have physically engaged the local communities who shared their navigational challenges and experiences with us and all these were put into the design consideration.

Currently, we are in consultation with the African Development Corporation shipyard in Masese, Uganda.

We shall operate a business to consumer model through boat sales.

The boats produced by the company will be sold for profit to local communities, private and government institutions. These will be of various categories i.e. for transport, leisure, tourism and other water-related activities including racing.

In order to sustain our company, our products will be sold for profit in order to enable the company meet both its fixed and operational costs.

In addition, we shall plant bamboo forests to have a reliable supply of raw-materials which reduces the cost of buying raw-material, have a training school to impart hands-on skills to communities and train our labor force, do repair and maintenance services for our clients, supply accessories and any other services as we may deem right.

Solve is a platform with great expertise, human capital, technology and most importantly funding. It is a marketplace that attracts the best innovators, incubates them and provides lasting partnerships to implement solutions to tackle global challenges. We need financial support to further our research hope to win the Solve community-driven innovation challenge and create useful networks to foster the creation of our product aiming at reducing social inequity.

• International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation: To get financial support and training on producing high quality bamboo products.
• Tahoe pontoon boats company: To further development of pontoons from bamboo.
•  Tesla, Inc: To develop a partnership in producing an electric series of these low-cost catamaran bamboo boats using green technology. 
•  MIT: To develop customized software for these boats through collaborative research

We shall harness Artificial Intelligence and use embedded systems to develop navigation systems including GPS, digital emergency warning systems, automated door locks, safety evacuation systems, and mobile apps to ease navigation.

Our aim is to improve physical and social environments that enable the under-represented people to mutually support themselves and foster development. Our overall vision is to create a sustainable system through providing linkages where people are involved in growing bamboo forests to conserve the environment, make multiple products such as houses, briquettes and baskets; imparting people with hands-on skills such as making bamboo clutches for the lame, embedded systems development, electronic repair to foster entrepreneurship, carpentry, painting, ship building, and construction; creating employment opportunities in fishing, trade, transport and tourism. This is all possible through our flagship catamaran boat project which uses bamboo as the main raw-material for its construction and as a base for social economic development for local island community.

Kata Marine Innovation Group aims to improve physical and social environments that enable people to mutually support themselves and foster development. Our overall vision is to create a sustainable system through providing linkages where people are involved in growing bamboo forests to conserve the environment, make multiple products such as houses, baskets and briquettes; imparting people with hands-on skills such as carpentry, painting, ship building, basket weaving and construction; creating employment opportunities in fishing, trade, entrepreneurship, transport and tourism. This is all possible through our flagship catamaran boat project which uses bamboo as the main raw-material for its construction.