Portrait of David Monnier, manager of Fonto de Vivo and “PRECIOUS WATER!” challenge laureate

Could you please introduce yourself briefly?

I am David Monnier, President and co-founder of Fonto de Vivo. I enrolled in Humanitarian work for nearly 15 years, working in Irak and Haiti as chief of an urgency delegation within NGOs. I later had the opportunity to work for the British government where I became passionate about water, particularly in areas where it becomes scarce. I was a business developer for an autonomous filtration specialized firm to spread out their solution in the humanitarian field. I committed myself with the hope to bring an alternative and sustainable solution. A few technicals partners and scientific institutes, such as the University of Nantes, joined me to elaborate on a reliable and powerful filtration system. Thanks to those opportunities, I met Anthony Cailleau, who is now my partner, being himself engaged in the valorization of the research and development of a sustainable water potabilization system in South America. Thanks to the support of an Angel Investor, we decided to start together with the Fonto de Vivo adventure.

Why are you working in the water sector?

It is one of the biggest issues faced by the 21st century ! As much as the lack of access to drinkable water as the humanitarian emergency caused by wars or natural disasters. Half of the world’s population is still drinking dangerous water or of questionable quality. Sadly, facing this issue, humanitarians aid worker do not have effective solutions. In this sector, innovation is not popular, and the only potential solutions concentrate on traditional structure, expensive and energy-intensive. Fonto de Vivo is following point number 6 from the United Nations’s (UN) sustainable development declaration for universal access to water and stabilization in 2030. Already existing solutions should be adapted to answer different use and mostly to the basic need of most people. That is what motivates and guides the development of our purifier Orisa®.

What is your motivation?

Our goal is to design a reliable, sustainable and economic product answering to NGOs’ needs, as well as the population in needs. It is primordial that everyone can produce its drinkable water for their survival. We would like for NGOs who are fighting against poverty to favor access to education and health care. Campaigning for gender equity should be a priority as well since the lack of water access is the common denominator of all inequalities. Our purpose is that Orisa® purifiers become a reference for the humanitarian aid workers to permit access to drinkable water in emergencies and developing areas.

Could you present your project?

We are developing familial, economic and sustainable water purifiers dedicated to humanitarian aid workers. We designed them with the collaboration of prestigious French NGOs such as Médecins sans frontières, La Croix Rouge française, Solidarités Internationale, Handicap International, Premières Urgences and Médecins du Monde. Our purifiers filtrate every surface water against biological contamination (virus and bacteria) by manual pumping. The principle is quite easy, you just have to pump, filtrate and drink up to 90L of water per hour, by hanging a purifier on any container. Our purifier is made of a permanent innovative maintenance system, patented, and does not need any chemistry or electricity. Thanks to those innovations, the purifier can take care of a. family of 5 during. Approximately 5 years. The technical development is in its industrialization phase. Right now, we are looking to finance the investments needed for the commercialization of purifiers that will see the light of day at the end of 2019, to be present within the NGOs in 2020.

What is its environmental impact? What are your daily environmental actions?

The awareness of the environmental impact is for us daily issues, starting with the purifiers’ development and fabrication. Obsolescence is something that we took into consideration while making the purifiers Orisa®. We deliberately limited wear parts and planned that they could be dismantled, reparable and recyclable by locals NGOs. Most of our partners are located in the West of France to guarantee a proximity relationship as well on R&D issues as on production. We recently took part in a responsible numerical approach by choosing web hosting and renewable energy for messaging service. We are members of innovation centers about water and polymer to continue to innovate by mixing development with environment and ethic.