Because of lack of sufficient Waste management in horn of Africa, an increasing number of disposable sanitary pads will likely to end up in the environment. Washable pads would reduce the number of pads consumed and therefore the amount ending up polluting the environment in horn Africa. Additionally, disposable sanitary pads might not be easily available to all women, especially the poor and those living in rural areas.
The Impact
Kalsooni Company Ltd. has estimated the number of women in fertile age to 1,000,000 in Somaliland and to them needing 195 disposable sanitary pads in a year. Not all of them currently use disposable pads but if they were about to in the future, a large share of these would be likely to end up in nature. We estimate that we can reach 5-10 % of these women in the first 2 years of operations, equaling between 50,000 and 100,000 users. This provides a good basis for commercial viability and positive impacts on the environment as women are granted a product they need without the substantial harm that disposable pads would impose.