Close to 2.2 billion people suffer as they do not have access to safe drinking water but thanks to NGO Give Power, solar-powered plants that transform salty ocean water to fresh drinking water is changing that.
In August of this year, the NGO, Give Power, conducted their very first solar-powered water transforming plant test.
While this is not their first project, Give Power recently had overwhelming success installing a new plant that transforms saline water into drinking water in Kiunga, a small town in Kenya.
But the organization has plans to use the technology around the world.
The Kenyan town of Kiunga was chosen for the installment of this plant to fix the problem and help as many people as possible. After this success, the organization is planning similar projects in both Columbia as well as Haiti.
The process which turns salt water into drinking water, or desalination, is not only very power-consuming but also expensive. Using solar energy as a long-term solution is the key. Give Power installed a “solar water farm” in Kiunga that harvests solar energy using solar panels — which produces two water pumps to run for 24 hours a day — providing drinking water for over 25,000 people.
The new addition is life changing for the regions as over 1/3 of the people do not have access to safe drinking water.
Prior to the installment of this technology, people had to travel over an hour to collect safe drinking water for themselves and their families.
And as each drop was precious, they would bathe and wash their clothes in dirty salt water which is very harsh on human skin.
President of GivePower, Hayes Barnard, shared:
“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.”
Thankfully, the installment of the plant did not only help their bodies with those particular ailments, but they also rescued them from various diseases as the water they were previously using was chalk-full of pollutants and parasites.