How long does it take you to enjoy a sip of refreshing water?
Fetch a glass, turn on the tap and let the water flow. It’s a matter of seconds.
And do you ever think your tap water is going to cause a serious illness?
Your answer is probably no.
For millions of people, a sip of safe drinking water requires a lot of effort and has a detrimental impact on climate change – collecting firewood to boil the water.
Thankfully, Water4Climate uses the (free) power of the sun to disinfect biologically contaminated water.
This is a WADI – it is placed alongside plastic or glass bottles which are filled with contaminated water. They are then exposed to the sun. The device visualises the process of solar water disinfection and when the water is safe to drink, a smiley face appears on the WADI.
This project means that people in India and Bangladesh do not have to boil water for safe consumption anymore. In return, firewood is saved and less CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere – the current figure is a staggering 100,000 tons of CO2 saved.
Here are some more statistics:
The Sun is a powerful resource. We need to use it more!