Tyler McMahon and SmartPaani Pedaling Yak Attack and Removing Plastic Bottles from the World’s Highest MTB Race.
I lived in Nepal from 2007 to 2020, riding my bike a lot and running a water management company (https://smartpaani.com) from 2011 to 2020. As an avid mountain biker and friend of the local talent, I avidly followed and participated in Yak Attack, finishing the race 6 times from 2012 to 2018. I also took part in 2 of the 3 Pokhara IV events (2019, 2020) along with Rumble in the Jungle in 2016.
In 2013 riding up one of the many hills in the Kathmandu to Besi Sahar section, I was happy to see a water station, but shocked at the number of bottles. That year there were over 40 racers, which meant each station had 100+ bottles of water, many of which were taken, partially drunk, and thrown (obviously collected by the team after). I understood that there were few options for the race at the time so personally I did the only thing I could, refill my 3-liter hydration bladder at the plastic free drinking water stations on the Annapurna Circuit each day, and hope it lasted. However, half the time they were closed or unavailable in the villages we stayed in.
At the time SmartPaani, my company, was not yet into drinking water filtration and I didn’t have a solution. However, in 2015 we started working on drinking water for households as well, which opened options. After testing our filtration solutions and operation at some outdoor festivals and races, the option to help at Yak Attack in 2017 arose. We knew there would be growing pains, and there were with making sure the filters were full and having them arrive at the right places and times a challenge. However, the impact was clear with a significant reduction in the use of the bottles by the race and the need for riders to purchase their own each evening.
In 2018, the removal of plastic at stations was a success, along with being able to provide free and safe water to participants in the hotel each morning and evening. This accomplished removing at least 80-100 plastic bottles each day of the race, while ensuring participants had access to safe water. That’s a lot of waste prevented over a 10-day race, and this has continued each race, and in the Pokhara IV races, since.
SmartPaani is a sustainable water solution social enterprise. We provide rainwater harvesting, water filtration, and wastewater recycling solutions across Nepal. One of the main draws of our technologies are their ease of use and maintenance, so it was important to showcase that during the race. By combining a familiar style with a more advanced filtration technology, while maintaining an affordable price, the same solution used in Yak Attack can be adopted in most tourist lodges in the hills and mountains in Nepal. During the 2019 race, one lodge opted to purchase a filter at the end of the race to offer their guests a plastic-free safe water alternative.
Yak Attack and other outdoor events like the Himalayan Outdoor Festival and Impact Marathon kickstarted SmartPaani’s journey into replacing plastic water bottles. Currently our systems at events and hotels displace over 50,000 plastic bottles, saving hotels money and reducing waste. Additionally, over the past 10 years, the company has provided clean drinking water to over 50,000 students at schools and has systems in place to collect or recharge over 250 million liters of rainwater and treat 10 million liters of wastewater each year.
Multiple schools have been provided clean drinking water supported by previous Yak Attack finishers. Robert Burnett helped us fund a school immediately after the earthquake through crowdfunding, which helped us iterate the model which we’ve implemented in 150 schools. In 2017, Driftwood Association run by Richard Williams, another 2013 finisher, partnered with SmartPaani to install systems in 4 schools and we have plans to do another 1-2 schools in 2022 with Driftwood.
Email Tyler (tyler@oneplanetsolution.com) and info@smartpaani.com if you’re interested to learn more.
