Containerized car wash

The Problem

According to https://thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-crisis-ethiopia, Ethiopia is located in Africa's Horn where drought and politics are two leading causes of water shortage. In a study conducted by Water.org, they found that "42% of the population has access to clean water supply" and only "11% of that number has access to adequate sanitation services". In rural areas of the country, these figures drop even lower, resulting in health problems in the villagers as well as their animals. There is a lack of water in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. There can be many reasons but the most common one is wastage. This design solves the major water wastage of car wash service. As seen in the attached pictures, the common car washing mechanism has a very high amount of water wastage in Ethiopia. I took the picture in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa near my area of residency. The car wash uses drinking water to clean cars as seen in the picture. And it is common water will not be available from time to time in the capital. This is a major issue and it needs to be dealt with.

Our Proposal

The objective of the design is to build a containerized car wash mechanism that captures water for re-use, is cheap and easy to deliver and set up, and is quick to manufacture and uses solar power to run the system. This means reusing the water that is discharged from washing the vehicle. In our country water shortage is common but you do not see water preservation mechanism. And car wash service provider consumes a large amount of drinking water for their business while the society lucks regular supply of drinking water. So my invention makes car service providers self-sufficient and saves the life of society by ensuring their supply of drinking water. The mechanism contains a closed structure, water pump, gate valve, non-return valve, sand filter, reservoir, pipe, solar system, hose, and bar screen. The car enters into the container for trapping the waste car. Then dirty water passes through bar screen for trapping slugs. Then by using a pump the water is forced to go to sand filter, it can not be drinkable after filtration but we can wash the car with it. Then finally the filtered water is directed to the tank and to washing hose by using a small pump. Car wash mechanism has 3 phases, prewashing, detergent washing and finishing. The prewashing and finishing water can be easily filtered by the sand filter and can be used only for prewashing and finishing. since the sand filter does not filter the detergent we separately filter the detergent washing.

We Assume that...

The Ethiopian government will make obligation to use the product for car wash service providers for the sake of saving water.

The Ethiopian government stabilize the market by sharing expense with car wash service providers.

Constraints to Overcome

As mentioned my device is about preserving drinking water that is wasted by car wash service providers. Since car wash service providers use drinking water and society lucks sufficient drinking water, it is about saving lives and make a profit at the same time. My project has a high positive impact on the preservation of the environment, have a high market opportunity because it has never been done before and there is a market demand. Most of the work done in my country does not have anything to do with conservation, rather a wastage is considered cultural therefore I am working hard to break this culture and show the community by conservation we can ensure our sustainability of life.

Current Work

Currently, I have come up with a very good solution to a critical problem. I have done the design and the next step is building the prototype.

Current Needs

I need funding to build the prototype.