Orlane NEMI BIKAÏ (Cameroon)

Orlane NEMI BIKAÏ (Cameroon)

(Design Engineer in Hydraulics, 

Water Science and Technology | Founder, Bio Water Sarl)

In 2025, Cameroon's water service coverage still stood below 40 per cent. Orlane Nemi Bikaï decided to do something about it — not with a policy paper, but with a clay pot.

A design engineer in hydraulics, water science and technology, Orlane founded Bio Water Sarl, a small enterprise based in Maroua, in Cameroon's Far North Region, to produce and sell an ecological household water filter of her own design: the Bio-filtre. The idea came from what she saw around her. "The idea of designing the Bio-filter was born from an observation in 2019," she told Afrive. "A significant portion of the Cameroonian population lives without safe access to drinking water, and many deaths are attributed to the consumption of unsafe water. This observation was first made only in the Far North region, and became generalised after studies in the nine other regions of Cameroon. Our solution is therefore intended as a concrete response to make drinking water available to every Cameroonian household — and indeed every African household."

Her engineering is deliberately local. The filter's outer shell is made from clay; inside, a ceramic candle works alongside an activated carbon filtration system. It treats well, borehole and spring water of moderate turbidity, holds thirteen litres, and requires no electricity. And critically, it is affordable: a Bio-filtre costs between 25,000 and 30,000 CFA francs (roughly €38 to €46), putting household water treatment within reach of ordinary families.

The path from idea to market was methodical. "The first MVP (Minimum Viable Products) became available in 2023," she explains. "The project's invention patent was obtained in 2024, and in the same year the solution began to be commercialised."

Recognition followed quickly. In February 2026, at the 6th Professional Women's Forum held in Yaoundé during the 23rd International Congress and Exhibition of the African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA), Orlane won first prize in the innovation category of the African Women in WASH Awards. "I feel honoured. It is an immense grace. It is a recognition of the work accomplished," she said. "What made the difference was the ecological aspect of the project, because it puts local materials first."

Bio Water Sarl does not yet publish impact figures, but reports strong feedback from communities across northern Cameroon where the filter is already known and sold. Like any young enterprise, it needs partnerships, institutional backing, investment and technical support to produce at scale — and Orlane's ambition is clear: for the Bio-filtre to become the country's number-one water filter.

Her vision reaches further still. "In the short term I aim to strengthen the structuring of my team and make it easier to commercialise my solution. In the medium term, to propose other innovative solutions, always with the concern of improving access to drinking water. And in the long term, to help build a better environment," she says. "I think the future of WASH rests on each and every one of us. This is an opportunity to call on everyone to reconsider our relationship with water, and to invest in ecological solutions."

From a workshop in Maroua to a continental prize in Yaoundé, Orlane Nemi Bikaï embodies exactly what this campaign celebrates: young African women who do not wait for solutions to arrive, but engineer them from the clay beneath their feet.

Sources: Afrive (interview, 23 March 2026); African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA) 23rd International Congress, Yaoundé, February 2026; Bio Water Sarl. Quotations translated from the original French.