• Question: What is the best water scheme for developing countries?

    Asked by javanlangar to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 26 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      It depends on the country! I don’t know much about it, but there are various ways to get water in hot countries. Desalination is where you take seawater and try to remove the salt – Israel does this a lot, but it’s expensive to do, so not good for developing countries (also, you need to be by the sea). Sometimes a simple well is good for a small village, but these can be polluted if enough people use it – if diseases get into the water, it can spread the disease to everyone who uses it. It’s not just good enough to get water – it has to be clean and safe to drink! Ultimately cities will need proper plumbing, etc, and as countries develop more people will move to the cities to work rather than relying on farming.

    • Photo: Robert Woolfson

      Robert Woolfson answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      I agree with Sam, maybe something like this would be nice if it could be made really really cheap:

      http://www.scidev.net/global/health/news/cheap-nano-tablet-purifies-water-for-up-to-six-months.html

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      I agree with you guys too – I think purifying the water is actually more of a challenge to developing countries than actually getting the water itself. Humans have naturally settled around areas where enough water is available. But the biggest problem in places like most of Africa is the cleanliness – I think the lack of clean water is one of the biggest killers of children in African countries.

      What would be really good is if the purification system could be self-reliable, so, using solar/wind power or something, to make it as sustainable as possible

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