Water
This simple box serves up running water and clean electricity in remote locations
Off Grid Box, an Italian startup, was founded to bring clean water and renewable energy to the millions of the people in the world who still live without. The box itself is a simple container, measuring six by six by six feet. With solar panels on top and water treatment inside, it can help remote Read More...
Reusable carbon nanotube water filter removes 99 percent of heavy metals
Researchers at Rice University have developed a simple water filtration material so effective that a single gram of it can treat up to 83,000 liters of contaminated water, after which it can be washed with vinegar and reused. After a trip to India, where he saw the connection between e-waste and Read More...
California considers bill to turn toilet water into drinking water
California is used to water problems. So it makes sense that state lawmakers are considering a bill that would clear the way for communities to put highly treated wastewater directly into the drinking water supply. The water authorities in the state insist that waste water can be adequately Read More...
Digitalization is helping to deliver clean water to millions in India
Staggering economic growth may have improved the lifestyle for millions in India but there are still millions who struggle for basic amenities like clean water. According to a report by WaterAid, a global advocacy group on water and sanitation, around 63 million Indians don’t have access to clean Read More...
How cutting China’s coal overcapacity could help tackle its water woes
The Chinese authorities could provide water for nearly 30 million people by the end of the decade by simply scrapping superfluous coal power capacity in water-stressed regions, according to a new analysis. Despite the historic reduction in China’s coal consumption since 2014, a huge number of Read More...
How San Francisco is leading the way out of bottled water culture
Americans drink enough bottled water each week to circle the globe two times around. That was one of the many alarming facts that motivated politicians in San Francisco to pursue a progressive environmental regulation no other major US city had dared – a ban on bottled water. The liberal Read More...
In Madagascar, a waterless toilet may provide a global solution
If there is one technology that symbolizes the global water sector’s future struggles, it would be the toilet. While there have been plenty of advances in farming irrigation and water purification, toilets are still stuck in a Victorian-era time warp. Granted, sanitation is improving across Read More...
This device can produce water in the driest of deserts
This company has created an apparatus that can collect water in the hottest and driest of environments, without being connected to the grid. The Desert Twins harvester comprises two separate devices—an energy unit, which draws and stores power from solar panels, and the water maker, which uses Read More...
Freshwater from salt water using only solar energy
A federally funded research effort to revolutionize water treatment has yielded an off-grid technology that uses energy from sunlight alone to turn salt water into fresh drinking water. The desalination system, which uses a combination of membrane distillation technology and light-harvesting Read More...
Billion-dollar dams are making water shortages, not solving them
Dams are supposed to collect water from rivers and redistribute it to alleviate water shortages, right? Not so fast. It turns out that in most cases they actually create water scarcity, especially for people living downstream. Almost a quarter of the global population experiences significant Read More...