Fact: Around 884 million people around the world don’t have access to clean water.
What does it mean? 1 out of 9 people on the planet doesn’t have water that is safe for human consumption. This is the Water Crisis, we are facing today.
Worldwide children, women,and men are affected by the water crisis, and every 90 seconds a child dies from a water-borne disease. Women and children are the most affected, as they spend over six hours a day collecting water. This is time lost on education, work,and family life.
The Silver Lining
Several innovative solutions are being discovered in developing and developed nations to meet the global water crisis. In this post, Sintech Pumps-centrifugal water pump manufacturers take a look at some of the revolutionary and creative technologies used to improve access to clean water.
- Drinkable Book
This was developed by the NGO; Water is Life along with researchers at CMU (Carnegie Mellon University). The words on each page of the book contain vital sanitation advice like keeping contaminants and feces away from drinking water.
What’s unique about this book is that each page of the book is a filter paper, which purifies drinking water up to 99.9%. Each book has enough filter paper to provide drinking water to the reader for up to four years.
Currently, this book is distributed in water scarce areas in Tanzania, India, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya,and Ghana.
2. WaterSeer
On first glance, this looks like a well. But, it isn’t. Unlike a well that extracts water from under the ground, the WaterSeer extracts water from the atmosphere. This device is planted at a depth of six feet below the ground. The lower chamber of the device is surrounded by the cool earth.
Above the ground, it uses a turbine, which spins. The spinning of the turbine above the ground spins fan blades inside the buried chamber. These blades then push the air into an internal condensation chamber, where the warm air cools down into water vapour.
This water vapour is then collected in the lower chamber and can be extracted using a simple pump and hose setup. The waterseer has the capability to collect 37 litres of water every day.
The waterseer is developed by the US-based VICI labs and is currently being tested by the National Peace Corps Association.
3. Graphene Filters
One of the biggest problems of desalination (the process of converting seawater into drinkable water) is that it’s too expensive and requires plenty of energy. Recently, a researcher Lockheed Martin has created, and patented graphene filters which he claims reduces the energy costs of conventional reverse osmosis by 20%.
Additionally, this filter will be able to withstand high temperatures and pressures. The graphene filter is hyper-permeable and perforated and is one atom thick. This device claims that it increases water flow by 500% compared to conventional methods.
This technology aims to reduce the wastewater generated by the oil and gas sector. Together, these two industries generate about 18 billion gallons of wastewater every year.
4. Fog Catchers
These are vast mesh nets that capture moisture from fog. The moisture trapped from fog is dripped into collection trays, as a result of condensation.
The biggest live example of this project is set up on the slopes of Mount Boutmezguida in Morocco. Here, around 6300 litres of freshwater is harvested daily using these mesh nets. The water is free, clean and gets collected quickly.
The Non-profit responsible for this project, Dar Si Hmad was awarded the Momentum for Change award by the UN in 2016.
You can find fog catchers in other countries like Ghana, Peru, Chile, South Africa, Eritrea,and even California.
5. Solar Pumps
These pumps run on clean energy harnessed from the rays of the sun. The excess energy generated is then sent back to the grid, thereby conserving water and other precious resources like coal, fossil fuels, etc.
In hot and dry climates like India, the majority of farmers depend on groundwater to irrigate crops. By harnessing the free energy of the sun, farmers reduce their expenses significantly.
Also, the buy-back scheme lets them sell the excess power and thereby provides farmers with an additional source of income.
In fact, the buy-back is seen as a triple win – farmers gain additional income, states add to their electricity reserves, and carbon emissions are cut down. Initially, this scheme was piloted in Gujarat and now has spread to the rest of the country.
Water experts believe that solar pumps are the way forward, as this method is highly sustainable and reduces environmental impact significantly. Check out the different types of solar pumps available at Sintech.
Wrapping it up
Have you come across any other innovative solution that solves the global water crisis? Let us know in the comments below.
And, if you’re interested in setting up a solar pump system, get in touch with our sales experts here at Sintech, India’s leading and innovative pump manufacturer.
