Solar Oven Converts Salt Water into Fresh Water

Solar oven being tended by owner. Photo courtesy: © Gabriele Diamanti

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I have several hobby horses that I like to trot out on a regular basis. One of those issues that is near and dear to my heart is the accessibility of fresh water to all who live on this planet. I am delighted to say that another small step in bringing affordable, clean drinking water to all peoples has been taken. Read on.

As a graduate student, Italian designer Gabrielle Diamanti's travels exposed him to the global water crisis and the issue became a fascination for him. Fortunately he's been able to use his skills as a designer to create something that could make a big difference for those with little access to clean water. The Eliodomestico is an open source design for what is essentially a solar still, but with thoughtful details to make it even more functional and easy to use for those in coastal areas where salt water is abundant, but fresh water isn't.

Technology doesn't always have to be complicated, sometimes the simplest materials and concepts are the best. The Eliodomestico works like an upside-down coffee percolator to desalinate salt water. The ceramic oven has three main pieces. The top black container is where the salt water is poured. As the sun heats the salt water and creates steam, the pressure that builds pushes the steam through a pipe in the middle section. The steam condenses against the lid of the basin at the bottom and then drips into the basin, where it is collected.

The oven can make about five liters of fresh water a day. The UN refugee agency states that refugees need a minimum of 7 litres per person per day, just to survive. In the arid regions where many of the displaced are forced to seek shelter, they need more. And to ensure minimum standards of health and sanitation, they need 20 litres of water per person each day.

The design can be built for about $50 and although Diamanti used terracotta for his prototypes, local craftsmen can use whatever materials are most abundant where they live. The basin is also designed to be comfortably carried on the head, which is common in sub-Saharan Africa and other places around the world.

Solar still technology is old and not uncommon to find in developing nations, but it's often on a much larger scale, like at hospitals or water desalination plants that serve entire communities. Diamanti wanted to create this open source project so that individual families could have access to the same desalination process in a simple-to-use format.

Back The Pack

Women using the water pack. Photo courtesy: © Back the Pack

Water has long been an issue with me. I believe everyone should have reasonable access to fresh, clean water without fear of rape, beatings or worse. Women and female children should not have to walk for miles/hours to find water to bring back to the family. In some countries, men wait by the water for people to collect it. The women and girl children are raped as are some of the male children. If there are any young men, they are severely beaten.

While these packs won't help much with those problems, they will make the collection of water a faster, more efficient, less painful chore. Hopefully, by drawing attention to the lack of clean, fresh drinking water in these countries; and, the dangers involved in collecting it, light will spill over onto the other problems as well.

A partnership between a major industrial packaging manufacturer and a group of social entrepreneurs has produced an innovative product - a water-carrying backpack to help transport clean water safely and with less effort. And one of the best parts is that they cost just $10.

In many parts of the world, the water crisis is an in-your-face daily issue, with lots of time and energy spent just providing the basic water needs of a family.

"The burden of water transport can be huge for women and children in developing countries. The average person needs 8 to 15 liters of water per day; a family of six needs up to 90 liters daily. And in Africa, for example, women walk an average of 3.5 miles each day to get water."

And on top of that, the containers used to transport it (usually a repurposed container) may be responsible for contaminating the water because they aren't designed to store potable water.

The solution, courtesy of a partnership between Greif and Impact Economics, is the WaterWear backpack, a sanitary, collapsible, and easier-to-carry container capable of making a big impact on the lives of those affected by the water crisis. 2000 of the WaterWear packs have been distributed in Haiti, with plans to distribute many more throughout the world, both for disaster relief and daily use.


Photo courtesy: © Back the Pack

"The WaterWear™ pack is the lowest cost, ergonomically correct way to manually transport water from source to home. It is the first for purpose designed water transport product that is economically viable for developing economies and disaster relief conditions."

The following video gives an insight into the problems women and children face collecting water.



The WaterWear packs are capable of holding up to 5 gallons of water, can be carried either on the back or on the head, and stand upright for filling.

Find out more about how you can help make these water containers more widely available: Back the Pack.

25 Million Lives a Year Could be Saved With Clean Water and Proper Sanitation

Photo courtesy: luigig at Flickr/CC BY 3.0

One thing that becomes absolutely crystal clear if you either know me or read this blog is that I am a fanatic about clean drinking water for all. Every living soul on this planet should have access to clean, pure drinking water; but, sadly this is not the case and there are billions that don't.

You also probably know that I support four World Vision children. Two of my kids are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the same project actually. While I send parcels containing colouring books, art supplies, candies, puzzles;and, the like I also send sanitary supplies (bandages, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc). My little fellow, that is a good communicator, shared how fortunate his entire family felt that I sent soap as part of their packages. They could afford some soap; but, not as much as they would like.

Very humbling, that is. I think of all the things I buy without being concerned about price - a bar of soap for example; and, they have to ration their soap.

A new report from WaterAid states the case for the need for immediate action on safe water and improved sanitation globally, as well as a continued commitment to investing in those same areas for the long-term.

“The need for action is overwhelming and the current situation where 37% of the world’s population still live without a toilet is unacceptable.” - David Winder, CEO of WaterAid America

In the report, Saving lives: sanitation and water for all would save 2.5 million lives, the authors say that the majority of developing countries are seriously off-track on meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) - halving the number of people living without safe water by 2015 - and will not meet that target anytime soon. Some places, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, will not be able to meet the target for over 150 years at the current rate.

The WaterAid report also says "the poor quality of sanitation and lack of access to safe drinking water causes 1.4 million child deaths every year, due to diarrhea, and that these deaths are preventable". The second biggest killer of children worldwide is diarrhea, which is caused by a lack of adequate sanitation and unsafe drinking water.

The report's findings come at a critical time, as the Sanitation and Water for All meeting in Washington (April 20) brings together 70 government ministers from over 60 countries to discuss the global water and sanitation crisis.

One focus of this meeting is to specifically call on the world's leaders to keep their own sanitation promises, as well as support the 57 countries which are currently most off-track to meeting their MDG sanitation targets.

"We now have an opportunity to do something about the current situation. This week there is a critical meeting in Washington where real progress on improving sanitation and water can be made. Progress on both fronts is essential to saving children’s lives and to delivering social and economic development." - Winder

WaterAid is an international development agency working on global water and sanitation issues. Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) is a partnership of governments, donors, civil society and multilateral organizations, working to ensure that all people have access to basic sanitation and safe drinking water.

Turkish Farmers Learn How They Can Reduce Water Usage by 50%

Agricultural use accounts for 72 percent of total water consumption in Turkey. Photo courtesy: Jennifer Hattam

I have written many blogs in the past on the developing global water crisis. In the next decade or so, water will become the new gold - in fact, it is already being called "liquid gold" by some environmentalists. I've discussed "Sana'a, Yemen: The First Capital City to die of Thirst", "Indian Farmers Commit Suicide as Drought Continues", "Drought Pushes Kenyan Nomads to The Brink" and many others.

Now it would appear that the message is getting through. We must start conserving water now; or, there will not be enough to go around later.

Summer in Turkey is fast approaching, temperatures are rising; and, already talk has started about whether there was enough rain and snow over the winter to keep the city's water taps full this summer or will there be days when the taps are dry.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and ETİ Burçak (a cookie and cracker manufacturer) formed a partnership in 2008 that aims to educate Turkish people about the impending threat of climate change. The project’s first major initiative will promote modern, water-conserving irrigation methods in the Konya area in Central Anatolia and then expand gradually to other agricultural centers in Turkey.

Studies done by the WWF and ETİ Burçak prove that making these improvements to the irrigation in the Konya region alone could save enough water to meet Istanbul's needs for up to three years.

Beginning this month, they will begin training farmers in the fertile region of central Anatolia called Konya to use modern drip-irrigation methods that has the ability to reduce water consumption by 33% - 50%. That's impressive!

Turkey uses more water for agriculture than most other countries. Agricultural use in Turkey sucks up 72% of the nation's water compared to 18% in household consumption and 10% in industry. Less than 10% of the irrigable land in Turkey is outfitted with water-saving irrigation techniques. According to WWF: "unsustainable water use practices in agricultural production are linked with the drying of lakes and rivers, declines in underground water levels, and rising soil infertility from a build up in salinity."

Konya is already finding out the hard way about having to suffer the consequences of unsustainable water practices. Their water use far exceeds the supply causing lakes and groundwater to dry up; both quality and quantity of food produced in the region to decrease; and, good grazing lands to be increasingly riddled with sinkholes and are giving way to desertification. To make matters worse, Konya is a closed basin system. While this drainage basin retains water, it doesn't have any outflow trapping the water in there. Temperatures in the basin are expected to increase between 2 - 6 degrees by 2030.

Already pilot irrigation projects in Konya and other Turkish farming areas have achieved water-use reductions of up to 50% on thirsty crops such as sugar beet, cotton, and corn. After training farmers and other members of the agriculture industry in the Konya area, WWF and ETİ Burçak aim to expand the effort to the country's other agricultural centers. Banks have been supporting the project by giving credit at low interest rates to farmers who are willing to purchase water-saving irrigation equipment.

"The threats of climate change are constantly increasing, and its impact has already started; therefore, it is crucial for us to start acting now," WWF-Turkey CEO Akın Öngor said at a press conference announcing the initiative. "If modern irrigation methods are implemented, there is a potential in the Konya area alone to conserve up to three years' worth of Istanbul's annual water supply."

Via TreeHugger and Daily News & Economic Review

F.L.O.W. - For Love of Water