The innovator shortlisted for Africa Prize for Engineering

MalawiDrop is an affordable household water treatment system that delivers safe drinking water directly at the point of use for off-grid rural communities. The device incorporates a refillable chlorinated resin cartridge that enables controlled chlorine release for effective disinfection, removing the need for complicated manual dosing and making water treatment simpler and more reliable for households. In Malawi, access to treated piped water cannot be taken for granted.

Even in semi-urban areas, households regularly rely on wells or surface water sources that must be treated before use. “Even as I speak, there are people just five kilometres from where I live who must collect water from wells or rivers,” she explains. These realities inspired her to focus her engineering research on improving water treatment solutions for underserved communities.

Although chlorine is widely recognised as effective for sterilising water in rural Malawi, safe dosing remains complex and for many households, especially where literacy levels are low, consistent treatment is difficult to maintain at home. Liquid chlorine requires measuring, testing strips and consistent supply chains. Over-dosing affects taste and health, while under-dosing leaves pathogens behind.

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Tadala beams: “I didn’t expect my work to leave the lab and go into communities. I was experimenting on artificial water at first, contaminating it myself for testing. To see it now moving beyond research and into real households is something I’m very proud of.” She is now shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Engineering 2026 Africa Prize as one of the 16 innovators across 11 African countries who will compete for a share of £85 000 (about K153 million) Africa Prize fund.

Shortlisted innovations and entrepreneurs from Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia have each been selected for their solutions to critical environmental, educational and health challenges in their communities. In a press release on Wednesday, the academy said Lesotho and Niger based innovators shortlisted for the first time after a record number of applications from more than 30 countries. According to the statement, The Africa Prize, which is partly funded by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, is the continent’s largest prize dedicated to stimulating, celebrating and rewarding engineering innovation and entrepreneurship across sub-Saharan Africa. It further said the innovators will enter an eight-month programme of training, mentoring and networking opportunities ahead of the final in October.

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