A "how to" guide for rural utilities: with no words

The villagers of Sodonge Africa have a hard time finding clean drinking water. And they’re not alone. Over 40% of the world’s population does not have access to safe, clean drinking water including 400 million people (41%) in Africa.

One innovative company, Soluçoes de Energia Rural Lda., created a Rural Village Energy (RVE) hub for placement in remote African villages that does much more than filter water. The RVE provides several essential functions; clean drinking water through filtration, solar power for lighting the night, biogas cooking fuel from animal waste, and fertilizer for crops. The RVE is a portable utility solution that can profoundly jump-start local economies. Jobs are created with new opportunities for education and learning.

Our challenge was to create a series of instructional visuals for local village energy vendors with limited abilities to read, in any language. We created a series of maintenance illustrations for the remote power plant to reinforce on site training.

I’ve included a few examples below with links to more information about the RVE pilot program in Sodonge. Please let us know if you’d be able to maintain the RVE based on these illustrations. We’ll refine our work as we continue to support positive change in the developing nations of Africa.