Entrepreneurial Laundry Station
Entrepreneurial, Solar-Powered Solutions that Save Women’s Time
Across the world, millions of women spend hours every week washing clothes by hand, often in unsafe, water-scarce or flood-prone environments. Despite its scale and impact, laundry remains largely overlooked in water, sanitation and gender programmes.
Practica is developing practical, affordable and scalable laundry solutions that reduce physical burden, improve hygiene, and unlock time for women, while creating viable business opportunities for local entrepreneurs.
Our innovation
Laundry is one of the most time-consuming and physically demanding household tasks globally. In many low-income and rural settings, it is done manually often at rivers, wells, or informal washing points, exposing women and children to contaminated water, physical strain, and safety risks.
At the same time, laundry is rarely addressed as a system within the water and sanitation sector. Existing solutions are either too expensive, not adapted to local contexts, or fail to consider the realities of women’s daily lives. Practica’s innovation focuses on designing context-appropriate laundry solutions that:
Reduce time and physical effort
Improve hygiene and water use efficiency
Are affordable and easy to maintain
WAre affordable and easy to maintain
Can function in diverse environments, including water-scarce and flood-prone areas
Beyond the technical solution, we see strong potential for entrepreneurial and service-based models. Laundry solutions can be operated by local entrepreneurs, cooperatives, or women’s groups, creating income opportunities while delivering essential services to communities. Beyond the technical solution, we see strong potential for entrepreneurial and service-based models. Laundry solutions can be operated by local entrepreneurs, cooperatives, or women’s groups, creating income opportunities while delivering essential services to communities.
Our Design
Our approach combines human-centred design, practical engineering, and local adaptation.
We work closely with women and communities to understand how laundry is currently done, the challenges faced, and the priorities for improvement. Based on these insights, we co-develop solutions that may include:
Improved washing stations (household or shared)
Ergonomic tools to reduce physical strain
Water-efficient washing technologies
Manual or solar-powered systems adapted to local conditions
Designs are intentionally:
Simple and robust, to enable local use and maintenance
Modular and adaptable, to fit different contexts and user needs
Suitable for local production or assembly, where possible
By combining user insights with practical engineering, we ensure that solutions are not only technically sound, but also accepted, used, and valued by communities.
Our ambitions
We aim to bring laundry into the centre of water, sanitation and gender discussions, and to develop solutions that can be scaled across countries and contexts.
Our ambition is to:
🔹Reduce the unpaid labour burden on women
🔹Improve health, dignity, and safety in everyday water use
🔹Enable viable business models for laundry services and products
🔹Support local manufacturing, distribution, and service ecosystems
We are looking to collaborate with:
🔹NGOs and development partners in WASH and gender
🔹Private sector actors (manufacturers, distributors, service providers)
🔹Financial institutions exploring inclusive business models
🔹Governments and programmes aiming to improve water access and livelihoods
Practica supports partners in piloting, refining, and scaling laundry solutions, including building value chains, training local enterprises, and developing sustainable business cases.
Because transforming laundry means transforming time, health, and opportunity for millions of women.
Interested by the Laundry?
Then don't hesitate to contact us. For more information on our impact, read our page on drinking water supply.