Our cherished life depends on the amount of water we drink. Clean and safe drinking water helps the body maximise its performance, facilitates digestion, and fight illnesses. However, the opposite can happen if the water we drink is unclean or generally unsafe. JIBU, a Rwandan bred franchise company, aims at consistently producing safe drinking water through its four-step filtration method. To delve more into that, The New Times contacted the company’s quality and production management team. Idrissa Habiyaremye, the production and quality manager, said one of the leading catalysts JIBU employs to guarantee the safety of their water is through rigorous training of all people involved in production. “Our franchisees are rigorously trained personnel, equipped with state-of-the-art purification tools with guidance and inspection of the Rwanda Standards Board,” said. “We also carry out periodic franchise assessment after which those who fall short of our standards are sanctioned with a suspension,” he says, reiterating that this is only to assert their customers are safe. Habiyaremye then continues to state in detail the four-step filtration method, a proven scientific method used to ensure the quality of the refillable drinking water JIBU produces. “The purification methods used are internationally accredited to produce safe and clean water at the rate of 99% as they kill all the bacteria and other inorganic microorganisms contained in water,” he explained, citing the technological methods they use which take place in four-way filtration process; Step 1 Pre-screen: This is when raw water is treated initially, resulting in impurities filtration. Step 2 Ultrafiltration: this stage uses a filter that filters water at a rate of 99.9%; the screened compounds that are eliminated include bacteria and viruses that are harmful to the body. Step 3 Carbon: At this stage, water is treated by giving it its natural state, removing colour, smell or any other impurities. Step 4 The last stage is called the polishing filter, which removes any impurities that might have survived the three previous steps. How about boiling water and using self-filtering methods? Can this also be guaranteed the same results as the four-way filtration method? To this, Habiyaremye responds; ‘“Boiling kills the micro-organisms which only die at 100 degrees Celsius, but our purification methods kill even those that survive at that temperature. “For those who filter at home, the filtering machine can be costly, plus its maintenance and cost of electricity are higher than buying one bottle from JIBU,” he clarified. Another way to guarantee the safety of the water would be to ensure the water is stored in a cool, dry place to avoid the sun’s rays that disturb the optimum room temperature reserved for water’s storage. To further guarantee water safety, Habiyaremye says that customers should be conscious of where they purchase their water, as some start-up water companies collect JIBU bottles to refill them with their ‘unsafe’ water, to supply at lower prices. In that case, he says, the side effects from drinking that water end up being blamed on JIBU. “Hence, we encourage all of our customers to purchase from authorised resellers. We are also in the process of tightening our legal framework to set stringent consequences for those outside our network involving themselves in malpractices,” he commented. Since opening shop in the country in 2012, JIBU has distributed over 174 million litres of safe purified water to citizens, mostly urban dwellers. Apart from Rwanda, the company has set its footprint in seven other African countries; Burundi Uganda, DRC, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia. The company has scooped the Financial Times transformational business award and was featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review for Spring 2021. Jibu’s administration calls on its customers to contact them in case of any inquiry via their line 0785 121 071 website www.jibuco.com or social media pages, @Jiburwanda on Twitter and @jiburwanda on Facebook and instagram and via email rwanda@jibuco.com.
