According to the 2nd UN World Water Development Report, one fifth of the world's population lacks access to safe drinking water. That's more than a billion people, all of them facing death because water (the second most essential element to life next to air) does not come out of a tap, a river, a bottle or even a municipal water system that provides water-to-go.
Maude Barlow, the senior adviser on water to the president of the UN General Assembly, notes that, in 2008, 2.2 million people (most of them children) died of water-borne illness worldwide. In India, for example, 165,742 schools have no available drinking water; pupils either bring water to school or do without. In Africa, women and their daughters are forced to travel inhumane distances just to get enough water to sustain life, and are then required to carry it home daily. This means Africa's daughters don't have time to go to school, and its mothers don't have time to develop job skills or find paying jobs.
Access to safe drinking water isn't just a third-world problem, though. In the U.S., the pesticide Atrazine - banned in Europe - is still being used, with some 60 to 70 million pounds applied annually, contaminating the drinking water supplies of one million Americans.
Now, however, a solution has arrived. Called the Watercone, this device allows anyone, anywhere to extract potable water from sea water, brackish water, or even water contaminated by heavy metals. This solar powered water desalinator has been tested by CARE Germany and proven to remove arsenic, mercury and cadmium from standing water via evaporation. This water, though not of distilled standard, delivers drinking water in line with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, regardless of the water used in the pan.
As valuable as this invention is, it's important to note that the water delivered via solar evaporation still contains miniscule quantities of pollutants. This, however, is only relevant in terms of disease vectors. When used in the hot, arid climates of Africa, India and elsewhere, the temperature the initial water has to achieve to result in evaporation likely eliminates many disease-causing organisms as well, though tests have not established this.
How does the Watercone work? Fill up the base with water, place the transparent plastic cone over the top, and in 24 hours a trough around the edge of the cone will have accumulated between one and 1.5 liters (1.05 quarts) of fresh water.
One potential drawback: the Watercone is reportedly made of polycarbonate, one type of which is made from bisphenol A, the poisonous plastic almost banned from baby bottles in California in 2008. The site, however, calls its polycarbonate "environmentally friendly".
The device, originally tested in a fishing village by the sea in Yemen - which struggles for every drop of drinking water it can get - has won certification from TÜV Rheinland Berlin Brandenburg, a leading provider of technical services worldwide, and has received 3 of the world's most prestigious design awards (the National Energy Globe Awards in 2007 and 2008, and the Kyoto World Water Grand Prize). The device has also undergone extensive academic and field testing in Europe, India, Thailand and Africa.
The units are anticipated to cost about $50 (£33.50) each, depending on the manufacturer. The cost could easily be supported, or supplemented, by any of the world's relief organizations. The problem was, the inventor - Stephan Augustin, a BMW group designer - wasn't able to find anyone willing to make them when the device was first approved for use.
More recently, reports indicate that Mage-Watermanagement GmbH from Munich Germany licensed the Watercone in 2008 and will start mass production and worldwide distribution in 2009. If true, it couldn't come a moment to soon for the word's parched billions.
Other related articles on Celsias:
Improve the Quality of Your Water Without Costing Our Planet
Potable Water in Desert Regions: Courtesy of WaterPyramid
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Evaporation does not mean high temperature. Evaporation happens whenever the partial pressure of water vapour drops below the dewpoint. This even happens below freezing (which is how freeze drying works).
Evaporative purification can still transfer volatile compounds such as petroleum pollutants so you have to be careful how you use it.
I wouldn't freak out about the plastics used to make these things. They're a lot less toxic than the other pollutants being removed.
Ceramic filters can be made just as cheaply and perhaps work better than distillation and can filter much more per day.
We use very low-techgravity-fed Dalton water filter which gives us (a family of 4) all the drinking water we need. These filters are well known technology that have been used since the 1800s. This can be built for far less than $50.
It is ludicrous that the distillation unit costs $50. A larger unit, with many times the output, could be made for way less than $50.
Written in May 2009