Living in a first-world country, most of us have a lot of privileges that we naturally tend to take for granted, such as using the internet every day and having fresh, clean drinking water readily available anytime we want it. Sadly, that isn’t the case for about 2.2 billion people around the world who still don’t have access to safe drinking water. This fact’s pretty ironic considering that 2/3 of the planet is made of water. However, now there may be a solution to this problem. Recently, the NGO GivePower installed a solar-powered plant that converts undrinkable salty ocean water into fresh drinking water. This plant will help at least 25,000 a day!
In early August 2019, GivePower conducted its first test in Kiunga, a small town in Kenya. Even though this, not their first project, the NGO celebrated a huge success after converting saline water into drinking water. The station continues to improve the lives of the town’s residents. Best of all, the organization isn’t stopping there; they have plans to introduce this technology all over the world. The plant’s two water pumps are able to provide drinking water for up to 25,000 people. Although 1/3 of the earth’s human population does not have access to drinking water, the problem is worse in some regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa.
Image credits: GivePower
This is why the Kenyan town of Kiunga was picked as the location of this plant, so they could specifically tackle this problem while helping as many folks as possible. After this successful launch, the organization is already planning similar projects in Haiti and Colombia.
And they actually have the capacity to provide even more drinking water, serving up to 35,000 people, 24 hours a day.
Image credits: GivePower
The desalination process that’s central in turning salt water into drinking water consumes a lot of power and, therefore, very expensive. But, using solar energy might make this process more sustainable in the long term. GivePower installed what they call “a solar water farm” in Kiunga that uses solar energy gathered by solar panels. They are able to generate 50 kilowatts of energy and power two water pumps on a 24-hour cycle every day.
Image credits: GivePower
This is a life-changing technology for regions such as Kenya, where over 1/3 of the people don’t have access to safe drinking water.
Before installing this station, people had to travel for more than an hour just to get drinking water for their families. Since every drop of freshwater is so precious here, they would usually bath and wash their laundry in dirty saltwater, which is extremely harsh on the skin.
Image credits: GivePower
Hayes Barnard, president of GivePower, said: 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.”
Image credits: GivePower
However, this plant didn’t just help with that but also help reduce various diseases, since the water they used before was often full of p0llutants and different parasites. This is a huge step forward for all of humanity!
Here are what folks are saying about the good news!
Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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