As citizens of a first world country, most of us enjoy a lot of privileges that we naturally take for granted, such as having internet access every day as well as clean, fresh drinking water available anytime we desire it. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for around 2.2 billion folks in this world who still lack access to safe drinking water. This tragic fact is pretty ironic considering that 2/3 of Earth is covered in water. However, there may now be a solution to this challenging problem. Recently, an NGO called GivePower successfully installed a solar-powered plant that’s able to create drinking water from ocean water.
Back in August of this year, GivePower conducted its first test in a small town in Kenya called Kiunga. Although this was not their first project of this nature, the organization celebrated a monumental success after it was able to convert saline water into drinking water. The station now continues to improve the lives of the town’s residents. Even better, the organization isn’t just stopping with Kiunga; they have plans to introduce this life-saving technology in different areas of the world. The plant’s two water pumps provide drinking water for around 25,000 people. And while 1/3 of the planet’s population does not have access to drinking water, the problem is much graver in some regions such as sub-Saharan Africa.
Image credits: GivePower
This is one of the main reasons why GivePower chose the town of Kiunga for its pilot location, so they could test the technology while helping out as many people as possible. After celebrating a successful launch, the organization is geared up to launch similar projects in Colombia and Haiti.
And the pumps actually have the capacity to deliver more drinking water, possibly serving up to 35,000 people 24 hours a day year-round.
Image credits: GivePower
The desalination process that’s the main part when it comes to creating drinkable water from saltwater consumes a lot of power, which also makes it quite expensive. But, by using solar energy, they feel that they will be able to make the process much more sustainable in the long run. GivePower put in what they call “a solar water farm” in Kiunga that takes solar energy collected by solar panels to generate 50 kilowatts of energy. This energy powers the two water pumps 24 hours a day.
This powerful technology will change lives in regions such as Kenya, where over 1/3 of the population doesn’t have access to clean drinking water.
Image credits: GivePower
Before they installed the station, people in the area had to travel for over an hour just to obtain drinking water for their families. Since every single drop of clean water was valuable, the people would usually wash their laundry and bathe in dirty saltwater, which is terrible for your skin.
Image credits: GivePower
Hayes Benard, president of GivePower, said: You see children inside of these villages, and they’ve got these scars on their stomachs or their knees because they got so much salt in their wounds. They were basically poisoning their families with this water.”
Image credits: GivePower
That said, this plant did not just help with that issue, but also helps to reduce the spread of various diseases and illnesses, since the water they once drank was often full of harmful pollutants and parasites. This represents a huge achievement for humankind!
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