Flat-pack washing machine spins a fairer future

Summary

A former Dyson engineer is rolling out a revolution for household chores in deprived communities after inventing an off-grid, flat-packable washing machine Some five billion people in remote and developing regions still wash their clothes by hand. It’s a task that unfairly burdens women and young girls, who can spend up to 20 hours a week on the chore. Enter Navjot Sawhney, who founded the UK-based social enterprise The Washing Machine Project (TWMP) to tackle this, and has now shipped almost 500 of his hand-crank Divya machines to 13 countries, including Mexico, Ghana, Iraq and the US. The Divya washing machine, made up of an outer drum and an inner one which rotates, operates a 30-minute wash cycle where it completes a 5kg load needing only a few minutes of manual turning. It works like this: after loading the clothes, detergent and water, and letting it sit for 10-15 minutes, users can close the lid and turn the handle for two minutes, repeating this twice more after ten minutes of letting the clothes sit in between spins. And voila — the machine can then be drained using the tap at the front. This saves up to 75% of time for its user, and halves water consumption. “The machine takes a task that is exhausting and time-consuming and transforms it into something simple, easier to manage, and time saving,” said Sawhney. The Divya project’s development didn’t end with its invention. “We went back to the drawing board and really listened to the people we were designing for, for the context in which they lived. That research changed everything,” said Laura Tuck, the organisation’s R&D Lead. One crucial consideration was making sure Divyas were fit for the locations where they would be used. For example, in Uganda, machines were delivered to a small island on Lake Victoria using a fishing boat. Repairs or replacements could not get there easily, so the TWMP team needed to rethink how the originally complex gear-system machine could work in these conditions. The solution...