Researchers demonstrate portable, solar-powered water desalination system

[IDemo]

By Stephen C. Webster
Saturday, October 16th, 2010 -- 1:43 pm

About one in eight humans do not have access to clean drinking water, according to the World Health Organization. That's approximately 884 million people.

The repercussion of this reality are a daily reality in developing nations: an estimated 1.4 million children perish each year due to diarrhea brought on by waterborne bacteria. In spite of breathtaking advances in human technology, over 97 percent of the world's water is still undrinkable.

And while salty or impure water can be cleaned through existing water desalination technologies, the facilities needed are massive and consume vast amounts of energy. It's costly, too: purifying sea water can cost "over $1,000 per acre-foot," according to the US Geological Survey. Even worse, of the roughly 12,500 desalination plants operating as of 2002, their combined total output was equal to less than 1 percent of humanity's daily water consumption.

All of these factors combine to effectively place clean water out of reach for most of the world's poor.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/researchers-create-portable-solarpowered-water-desalination-system/

[iamtechus]

1. "About one in eight humans do not have access to clean drinking water"

And how many of those have access to an ocean? :silly:

Cute little invention but who needs it?

[Dead_Parrot]

3. about half the world's population live near the coast

Definitions of "near" abound, but getting the clean water to them is definitely a local problem.

[NNadir]

2. Let me guess what they call it. Um...

..."rain?"

[joshcryer]

4. This is better than inflatable swimming pools and transparent plastic tarp.

And a fuckton more useful in the near term than other solutions.