Solar Water Plant in Kenya Turning Ocean Water into Drinkable Water

Nearly 2.2 billion people across the world don’t have access to clean drinking water and this happens on a planet, which is 71% covered by that essential element, required for survival or life. 

It may look like a contradiction, but it actually can be the key challenge for the future of humanity. How can we turn the seawater into drinking water? The answer can be found in a small town in Kenya.

The name of the fishing town is Kiunga, where a solar power water treatment plant has become a model for the world to follow. The project is successfully run by a non-governmental organisation named Give Power. They are using ocean water and turning them into hygienic potable water and the pilot test has already shown positive results, improving the lives of residents of Kiunga. 

UNICEF and WHO have published a report recently, where it has been declared that one in every 3 people in the world doesn’t have access to drinking water. 

The conditions are worse in sub-Saharan Africa. This is why Give Power has chosen the area to install the first solar plant system that transforms the Indian Ocean’s saltwater into clean drinking water.

A general desalination plant consumes large amounts of power and the process is expensive, also it can only operate in areas that have enough facilities to produce and distribute energy. The NGO has solved all these problems by using a technology they call “solar water farms,” which involve the installation of solar panels that can produce 50 kilowatts of energy everyday. It requires high-performance Tesla batteries to store the energy and 2 water pumps that can operate 24 hours every day.

The system generates clean drinking water for 35,000 people every day. Besides, the quality of water is far better than that of a typical desalination plant. 

After every rainy season, Kiunga faces extreme drought and its residents were forced to travel an hour to collect water. The only source of water they used, come from a well, which is located on the same channel, which is also used by animals for bathing. It was full of pollutants and has parasites that could potentially cause diseases like E. coli and even death.

Before the implementation of this solar plant technology, the residents were bound to drink, bathe and wash their belongings with that dirty and salty water. 

Hayes Barnard, president of Give Power says, “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”. 

By 2025, half of the population of the world will have to live in areas facing water scarcity. The reuse of wastewater to recover nutrients or energy will then be the only option. It’s the same regarding the treatment of seawater. Only 2.5% of the earth’s water is freshwater and the number is declining with the effect of global warming on glaciers and icebergs.

In such circumstances, this method is the only solution. The NGO has already started installing solar panels in more than 2,500 schools, businesses and emergency services in 17 countries of the world, thereby raising money to fund the construction of additional “solar water farms” to improve the health of the people as well as reactivate the economy of areas that have been devastated by drought.