SMART THINKING

An NGO is using solar power technology to bring safe drinking water to developing countries.

An NGO is using solar power technology to bring safe drinking water to developing countries.

Although more than 70 per cent of our planet is covered in water, more than 96 per cent is found in the ocean and therefore not drinkable. While drought ravages large areas of Australia, elsewhere one in nine people do not have access to safe drinking water. The trouble with traditional desalination processes is they require immense amounts of carbon-producing energy, and large amounts of chemicals. NGO GivePower has developed ‘solar water farms’, new technology that uses solar panels to produce energy, which is stored in Tesla batteries, for desalination processes. GivePower’s current mission is to install the solar energy technologies in developing communities. Its most recent project installed a solar-powered desalination system in Kiunga, a rural community in Kenya. The system is capable of converting ocean water into 70,000 litres of drinkable water every day, and the quality of water it produces is better than the typical water from desalination plants as it does not produce saline residues and pollutants. Before GivePower installed its new solar-powered desalination system, the people of Kiunga had to travel for one hour to reach their only source of water. This water came from a well that was located on the same channel that animals use for bathing, and was full of pollutants and parasites. Now up to 35,000 people have access to clean water every day.