Henk Holtslag
SMARTechs, SMART Centre Group
www.smartcentregroup.com

Henk is specialised in so called SMARTechs, being Simple, Market based, Affordable, Repairable Technologies. These are innovative low-cost water and sanitation technologies can be produced and repaired locally. The low-cost makes many SMARTechs affordable for families for Self-supply. Examples are manual well drilling, rope pumps, rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge, irrigation and household water filters. Henk has over 30 years experience in both failures and success in 18 developing countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. He is co-initiator of the SMART Centre group; www.smartcentregroup.com which consist of training centres in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and starting up in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Niger, Nicaragua and other countries. He was a key person in the improvements and dissemination of the rope pump, an effective low-cost hand pump that can be produced with local materials. There now are over 130.000 rope pumps worldwide but not always with success. Rope pumps maybe simple, but the hard lesson learned is: “Simple is not easy.” Also low-cost technologies need to be of good quality. This is why Henk strongly promotes the 3 Ts, which stand for “Training, Training, Training.” Capacity-building on all levels are vital, both in technology and other aspects like marketing and business skills. The vision is to get knowledge on innovation into national vocational education systems. He is a member of WASRAG, the Rotary E-club of WASH and Transform International.

Questions for Henk? Contact him at: henkholtslag49@gmail.com