The right solution starts with identifying the right problem
Everything H2E does grows out of years of hands-on field work on two products: a complete modular toilet sold through local markets, and nature-based wetlands that treat wastewater for whole neighbourhoods. Both show the same principle: identify the real problem first, then build the product and the local system around it.
Why Habitat to Ecosystem?
We start where people live, their habitat: the toilet, the water filter, the septic tank. We follow the water all the way back to nature, the ecosystem, through safe emptying, treatment and reuse. And we build the ecosystem of local enterprises, artisans, lenders and water utilities that keeps it working.
From the home back to nature
Safe water and a dignified toilet at home, safe emptying, nature-based treatment, and compost and water returned to farms and gardens.
From one household to a whole market
A need solved in one home or one housing estate, then a local system of producers, artisans, lenders and water utilities that keeps solving it.
What both stories taught us
Completeness drives adoption
Families hesitate when they must organise many trades. They invest readily in a complete, standard product.
Design for the artisan
If one mason can lift and fit every piece without machinery, the system works in any village or alley.
Capacity outlives projects
Training fabricators, yard owners and masons builds a market that keeps running when a programme ends.
Local champions make it happen
Field staff and entrepreneurs willing to experiment, fix mix designs and challenge old habits decide success.
Low-tech digital works
Photo-based monitoring on everyday phones gives real-time quality control and builds trust.
Interlock the business, too
Producer, artisan, lender and household must all benefit. Hardware alone is not enough.
Match the system to the operator
Treatment only works if the community and water utility can run it in every season. Low energy and simple upkeep beat sophistication, and keep working through power cuts and droughts.
Ownership keeps it running
When residents help plan, build and maintain a system, they protect it long after the opening day.
Why H2E Enterprise
Development programmes end, but needs and markets remain. Too often the knowledge, molds and trained people scatter when funding stops, and the next programme starts again from zero.
H2E Enterprise was founded in Addis Ababa by Henock Belete Asfaw to carry this work forward as an independent social enterprise: finding products with real market potential, designing them for a changing climate, building the ecosystem around them, and helping organisations across Africa and Asia use proven solutions instead of reinventing the wheel.
