VIA Water & NWP organized a Drop-the-MIC session: Pitches on African Water Innovations, at the Amsterdam International Water Week on Monday the 30th of October. A "Drop-the-MIC" originally comes from the hip-hop and comedy scene where a rapper/presenter drops the MIC from a stretched arm when his presentation/pitch/rap is over. This concept was brought to the wider public by President Barack Obama who dropped the mic at his last correspondence dinner. Friso Vos de Wael of VIA Water brought this concept to the water sector. 

15 African innovators of the VIA Water programme gave a 2-minute pitch where after they dropped the mic, indicating that they were done with their pitch. After these pitches, there was a meet & greet with the thematic water experts from various Dutch embassies in Africa. 

The 15 presenters and their topics were:
 

1. Fohla Mouftaou: Greenkeeper Africa: oil-absorbing fibers from weeds (BENIN)
2. Sonia Folikumah: Vegetable nursery using recycled sludge (GHANA)
3. Stefan de Wildt: Improving sustainable groundwater exploration (KENYA)
4. Isaac Monney: Closing the water loop for car washing stations (GHANA)
5. Boubacar Keita: MapAction Bamako (MALI)
6. Luchiri Omoto: Reducing water loss by improved data systems (KENYA)
7. Nashiru Bawa: Settled sewer networks reduce waste disposal (GHANA)
8. Joseph Githinji: From pit to product (KENYA)
9. Patrick Apoya: Self-billing and payment of water bills (GHANA)
10. Dickson Ochieng: Sanivation: fuel from human waste (KENYA)
11. Dominique Mvunabandi: Storm forecasts for Musanze (RWANDA)
12. Kevin Mureithi: Roof tiles from recycled plastic and glass (KENYA)
13. Gerwin Jansen: Virtual latrines for improved sanitation (MOZAMBIQUE)
14. Peter Chege: Soil-less farming in small urban spaced (KENYA & RWANDA)
15. Mamdou Diaw: the greening plastic project in Senegal (SENEGAL)

Also, VIA Water presented their new Bidbook containing all the projects of the VIA Water programme. This can be found at this link: https://www.viawater.nl/files/bidbook_spreads.pdf

Last, there were photo's made during the event. These can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5apexm8d9qZY8P223. The photos were made by www.annemiekkool.nl