Solar-powered water-treatment for Africa

The availability of clean drinking water plays – and will continue to play – a crucial role as both humankind and our planet evolve. Considering the demands on fossil fuel resources, a sustainable solution is required to supply the energy required for the purification process, thus enabling a way around the water-energy nexus paradigm. Such solutions are particularly appropriate for the small-scale, decentralized treatment plants that could be deployed in remote areas with minimal infrastructure, such as an electricity and water supply networks. This short talk will introduce two avenues that are being pursued to provide clean drinking water via solar energy: 1) Photovoltaic-powered membrane filtration systems, specifically designed to remove contaminants from either surface water or brackish groundwater. Such desalination systems can provide >1m3 of clean drinking water per day and have been extensively field tested in both Tanzania and Ghana, with a particular focus on fluoride remo