By 2025, 1.85 billion people in the world will be living in water scarcity. Countries will be going to war for water. But some people don't have to wait until 2025 to experience this reality of water scarcity; lack of water is a reality that Beth Koigi knows all too well. 

Beth, who holds a Master’s degree in Project Planning and Management from the University of Nairobi (class of 2015), was studying in university in Eastern Kenya when she was confronted with the reality of lack of access to clean water. The water from her tap in her dormitory was brown and dirty. Not to be disheartened, Beth fashioned herself some filters which she used to clean the water of dirt and bacteria. Hoverwer, in 2016, a drought hit Kenya. As a result, the country went into a water rationing program. The situation got so bad that,in the city of Nairobi for example, the rationing is expected to continue until 2026, according to the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company. Beth is one of the many Kenyans whose taps suddenly turned dry never to run again. After the rationing program started, Beth's tap went completely dry. 

Beth was inspired by the drought to think critically about climate change and the problems it posed, specifically around water scarcity. While on a four-month program at Silicon Valley, Beth joined forces with two other other women – American environmental scientist Anastasia Kaschenko and British economist Clare Sewell – to create Majik Water, which captures water from the air and converts it into drinking water using solar technology. Beth is the CEO of this enterprise. 

Majik Water, a play on "magic" and "kuvuna" meaning "harvest" in Kiswahili", could be the solution to the 1.85 billion people who will be living in water scarcity by 2025. Their target is water stressed people living in regions with no access to clean drinking water. 

"There’s an interesting relationship between climate change and the water in the atmosphere. There’s six times more water in the air than in all the rivers in the world. With every 1F increase in temperature, water begins to evaporate on the ground but increases by about 4% in the atmosphere, and that’s water that’s not being tapped," Kaschenko explained to the Guardian. 

The device has been well-received. It has won several awards including second-place at MIT's Water Innovation Prize and the €15,000 first prize this year at the EDF Africa awards in Paris. In addition, Beth was a finalist in the Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize. The pilot launched in February 2019 at the Ark Children's Home in Thika, Kenya. 

Although Majik Water is still at testing stage, it is projected that it will lower the cost of clean water at a time when most households - especially the ones in remote areas - are unable to afford purified bottled water. Beth hopes to be in full production of the devices in two to three years, eatablishing water bottling stations all around both rural and peri-urban arid and semi-arid regions.

"Most businesses fail because we often fall in love with our idea and do not want to change. It is always good to take a step back, re-evaluate every bit of our business and most importantly do not get attached to your idea,” Beth says in an interview with Nairobi Business Monthly, pointing out that theirs is all of a hardware innovation and as such the product development cycle is longer and takes time,” adding, “most of the times investors do not want to take a risk on an early stage company."