Water
This tiny device disinfects water using solar energy
Clean water isn’t option for people in many parts of the world, but a new device half the size of a postage stamp may change that. Developed by researchers at Stanford University, the device can harness the power of the sun to disinfect a container of water in as fast as 20 minutes. All you have Read More...
New desalination tech could help quench global thirst
The world is on the verge of a water crisis. Rainfall shifts caused by climate change plus the escalating water demands of a growing world population threaten society’s ability to meet its mounting needs. By 2025, the United Nations predicts, 2.4 billion people will live in regions of intense Read More...
China to spend $65 billion to improve water supplies: ministry
China plans to spend a total of 430 billion yuan ($65 billion) on around 4,800 separate projects aimed at improving the quality of its water supplies, the environment ministry said late on Monday. The Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a notice on its website (www.mep.gov.cn) that the Read More...
There is a cheap and easy way to fix the Rio sewage problem
In the weeks ahead, Olympic rowers, sailors, and swimmers will compete in waters with hazardous levels of bacteria. Doctors say that just three teaspoons of Rio’s polluted water are enough to bring on terrible diseases. But one community in Rio shows the way with a cheap and simple device called Read More...
How do we get more people to purify water using the sun's rays?
Local mistrust is slowing take-up of simple innovations that use sunlight to disinfect water, a UK conference has heard. Researchers working on low-cost, low-tech water purification systems for developing countries are struggling to convince local people that their solutions work, the EuroScience Read More...
Using solar power to turn saltwater into drinkable water
Fresh drinking water is increasingly precious. That’s why worldwide hundreds of desalination plants are planned or under way. However, most of them are powered by fossil fuels. At the giant Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park under construction near Dubai, a desalination facility goes Read More...
Drought-hit South Africa partners with Iran to build desalination plants
South Africa has partnered with Iran to develop desalination plants along all coastal communities to boost water supplies, the water minister said on Wednesday, as the worst drought in living memory dries dams. "Now with the partnership that we have entered into through the binational commission Read More...
California to lift severe mandatory water conservation rules
California on Monday prepared to lift severe mandatory water conservation orders imposed at the height of the state's multi-year drought, after a wet winter led to swelling reservoirs and a deep snowpack in numerous parts of the state. Instead of requiring a 25 percent, state-wide cut in water use, Read More...
Magic in the air: A self-filling water bottle offers a solution water insecurity?
This is almost magic: A water bottle that keeps filling itself as it condenses the air. The fear of dehydration during a long hike is gone. The Fontus water bottle is designed to capture the moisture contented in the air, condense it and store it as safe drinking water. A small fan draws the air Read More...
New cheap solar-powered energy system turns salt water into drinking water
Lack of access to fresh water is fast becoming the biggest threat to the future of humanity. The easiest solution is turning salt water, abundantly available in the oceans, into drinking water. That’s why rich countries invest in water desalination plants. But such plants are too expensive for Read More...