Freshwater from salt water using only solar energy.
This scaled-up test bed of NEWT’s direct solar desalination technology uses carbon black nanoparticles that convert as much as 80 percent of sunlight energy into heat.
The desalination system, which uses a combination of membrane distillation technology and light-harvesting nanophotonics, is the first major innovation from the Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), a multi-institutional engineering research center based at Rice University.
NEWT’s "nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation" technology, or NESMD, combines tried-and-true water treatment methods with cutting-edge nanotechnology that converts sunlight to heat.
Distillation has been used for centuries, but it requires complex infrastructure and is energy inefficient due to the amount of heat required to boil water and produce steam.
An emerging technology for desalination is membrane distillation, where hot salt water is flowed across one side of a porous membrane and cold freshwater is flowed across the other.
By adding low-cost, commercially available nanoparticles to a porous membrane, NEWT has essentially turned the membrane itself into a one-sided heating element that alone heats the water to drive membrane distillation.
Li, the leader of NEWT’s advanced treatment test beds at Rice, said the water production rate increased greatly by concentrating the sunlight.
For example, if you need 20 liters per hour, and the panels produce 6 liters per hour per square meter, you would order a little over 3 square meters of panels."
Established by the National Science Foundation in 2015, NEWT aims to develop compact, mobile, off-grid water-treatment systems that can provide clean water to millions of people who lack it and make U.S. energy production more sustainable and cost-effective.

Today, 1 in 10 people lack access to safe water; 1 in 3 people lack access to a toilet.
Simply put, water scarcity is either the lack of enough water (quantity) or lack of access to safe water (quality).
The problem of water scarcity is a growing one.
Fresh water sustains human life and is vital for human health.
It is estimated that 783 million people do not have access to clean water and over 1.7 billion people are currently living in river basins where water use exceeds recharge.
The challenge we face now is how to effectively conserve, manage, and distribute the water we have ; “A Monk Engineer Who Is Creating Ice Stupas To Solve The Water Problems Of People In Ladakh” Sonam Wangchuk had been inspired by Chewang Norphel’s work of creating artificial glaciers.
So when he saw people struggling to meet their basic water requirements in Ladakh, he came up with a solution of creating vertical ice stupas to store water for a longer time.
The key to human settlement in this cold desert is the art of diverting water from the streams through meticulously built canals toward deserts to grow crops like barley, wheat, vegetables and trees like apricots, apples, willow and poplar.
The Karez System in Bidar One of the most unique features of Bidar is the historic ‘Karez’ system (also known as Qanat) which is a water harnessing technology that originated in Iran/Persia.
The Karez was probably directed towards developing infrastructure for a village at Naubad.

New solar technology promises safe drinking water in a compact off-grid footprint.
Many desalination plants use distillation processes, which require heating water to boiling temperature and harvesting the purified water vapors, or reverse osmosis, in which strong pumps suck energy to pressurize the liquids.
A newer option, membrane distillation, reduces the energy inputs by using saltwater heated to lower temperatures flowing on one side of a membrane while cold freshwater flows on the other.
Enter the researchers of the Rice University-based multi-institutional Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT).
When a lens is used to concentrate the sunlight striking the membrane panels, up to 6 liters (over 1.5 gallons) of clean drinking water can be produced per hour per square meter of panel.
The technology can be applied as well to cleaning up waters with other contaminants, which might give the NESMD wide applicability in industrial situations, especially where power infrastructures are not readily available.
The only question remaining is: will the US still be committed to developing these leading edge technologies?
The press release on this breakthrough notes: "Established by the National Science Foundation in 2015, NEWT aims to develop compact, mobile, off-grid water-treatment systems that can provide clean water to millions of people who lack it and make U.S. energy production more sustainable and cost-effective.
NEWT, which is expected to leverage more than $40 million in federal and industrial support over the next decade, is the first NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) in Houston and only the third in Texas since NSF began the ERC program in 1985.
NEWT focuses on applications for humanitarian emergency response, rural water systems and wastewater treatment and reuse at remote sites, including both onshore and offshore drilling platforms for oil and gas exploration" The National Science Foundation wasn’t mentioned in Trump’s original ‘skinny budget’ in March but is tagged with an 11% cut in the more fleshed out version released in May, certainly less severe than the 31% cut to EPA or 18% redlined at the National Institutes of Health.

New solar technology promises safe drinking water in a compact off-grid footprint.
Many desalination plants use distillation processes, which require heating water to boiling temperature and harvesting the purified water vapors, or reverse osmosis, in which strong pumps suck energy to pressurize the liquids.
A newer option, membrane distillation, reduces the energy inputs by using saltwater heated to lower temperatures flowing on one side of a membrane while cold freshwater flows on the other.
Enter the researchers of the Rice University-based multi-institutional Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT).
When a lens is used to concentrate the sunlight striking the membrane panels, up to 6 liters (over 1.5 gallons) of clean drinking water can be produced per hour per square meter of panel.
The technology can be applied as well to cleaning up waters with other contaminants, which might give the NESMD wide applicability in industrial situations, especially where power infrastructures are not readily available.
The only question remaining is: will the US still be committed to developing these leading edge technologies?
The press release on this breakthrough notes: "Established by the National Science Foundation in 2015, NEWT aims to develop compact, mobile, off-grid water-treatment systems that can provide clean water to millions of people who lack it and make U.S. energy production more sustainable and cost-effective.
NEWT, which is expected to leverage more than $40 million in federal and industrial support over the next decade, is the first NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) in Houston and only the third in Texas since NSF began the ERC program in 1985.
NEWT focuses on applications for humanitarian emergency response, rural water systems and wastewater treatment and reuse at remote sites, including both onshore and offshore drilling platforms for oil and gas exploration" The National Science Foundation wasn’t mentioned in Trump’s original ‘skinny budget’ in March but is tagged with an 11% cut in the more fleshed out version released in May, certainly less severe than the 31% cut to EPA or 18% redlined at the National Institutes of Health.

New solar technology promises safe drinking water in a compact off-grid footprint.
Many desalination plants use distillation processes, which require heating water to boiling temperature and harvesting the purified water vapors, or reverse osmosis, in which strong pumps suck energy to pressurize the liquids.
A newer option, membrane distillation, reduces the energy inputs by using saltwater heated to lower temperatures flowing on one side of a membrane while cold freshwater flows on the other.
Enter the researchers of the Rice University-based multi-institutional Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT).
When a lens is used to concentrate the sunlight striking the membrane panels, up to 6 liters (over 1.5 gallons) of clean drinking water can be produced per hour per square meter of panel.
The technology can be applied as well to cleaning up waters with other contaminants, which might give the NESMD wide applicability in industrial situations, especially where power infrastructures are not readily available.
The only question remaining is: will the US still be committed to developing these leading edge technologies?
The press release on this breakthrough notes: "Established by the National Science Foundation in 2015, NEWT aims to develop compact, mobile, off-grid water-treatment systems that can provide clean water to millions of people who lack it and make U.S. energy production more sustainable and cost-effective.
NEWT, which is expected to leverage more than $40 million in federal and industrial support over the next decade, is the first NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) in Houston and only the third in Texas since NSF began the ERC program in 1985.
NEWT focuses on applications for humanitarian emergency response, rural water systems and wastewater treatment and reuse at remote sites, including both onshore and offshore drilling platforms for oil and gas exploration" The National Science Foundation wasn’t mentioned in Trump’s original ‘skinny budget’ in March but is tagged with an 11% cut in the more fleshed out version released in May, certainly less severe than the 31% cut to EPA or 18% redlined at the National Institutes of Health.

India’s institutions are failing its people.
Institutions are the "rules of the game" — the formal rules and informal norms that can — when strong — enhance cooperation, defeat corruption, and contribute to prosperity and development.
One ready measure of "development" (or functional institutions) is the ready availability of safe drinking water and functioning sanitation.
In India, the institutions are weakened by corruption, caste-discrimination and bureaucratic indifference.
To get an amazing insight into how dysfunction leads to failure, read this epic (17,000 word) investigation into the failing attempt to end "open defecation" But not all Indians — and very few politicians — understand how failure occurs or who should get the blame.
Read this piece on the scapegoating of Coke and Pepsi due to failures to manage groundwater, deliver drinking water or regulate pollution.
Ask yourself how it might be possible for these companies to "destroy water security" in India, but not in many developed countries?
The reason is that they are not the problem, but merely participants in India’s failure.
Bottom Line: The Indian people need to go after their politicians and bureaucrats — their fellow citizens — if they are going to get safe water and the dignity of sanitation.

Gov.
Scott Calls For Investment In Clean Water, Commits To Lake Champlain Cleanup.
Officials from Vermont, New York, Quebec and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency all committed to combine their efforts to reduce pollution in Lake Champlain on Monday in the first updated pollution management plan since 2010.
Republican Gov.
Phil Scott signed onto the new plan at an event in Crown Point, New York, alongside the commissioner from New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation and Quebec’s Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight against Climate Change.
Scott said his administration’s focus on Vermont’s economy doesn’t mean he plans to take focus away from environmental issues.
“As we look to grow the economy, we need to look in every area, not just the obvious places,” Scott said.
“That’s why I propose to invest $55 million in clean water funding for the coming year, an increase of almost $23 million over current levels.” An excess of phosphorus in Lake Champlain has caused toxic cyanobacteria blooms (also known as blue-green algae) in recent years, closing beaches and lowering property values along the lake.
Deborah Szaro is the acting Region 1 administrator for the EPA, overseeing New England.
“We don’t want those to happen.

DiNapoli: State must maintain water quality vigilance.
Alarm bells sounded in Hoosick Falls when its water supply showed up dangerous levels of Perfluorooctanoic acid, a water and oil repellent, used since the 1940s in products including non-stick cookware, stain-resistant carpeting and microwave popcorn bags.
Now, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says the state must raise the level of oversight on hundreds of New York water systems to safeguard public health.
Based on the Comptroller’s review of water system reports, nearly 90 percent of the state’s 192 public water systems detected contaminants equaling or exceeding limits.
"How do we protect drinking water supplies so we don’t have any of these chemicals?"
Additionally, the report said, it is incumbent on the state health department to maintain a up-to-date database on contaminants that could pose water system hazards, along with detailing their maximum allowable levels.
In the wake of the Newburgh and Hoosick Falls incidents and the fallout from serious lead contamination in Flint, Michigan, $2.5 billion was allocated in this year’s state budget for water infrastructure projects, including $120 million for remediation of contaminated supplies; at least $20 million for the replacement of lead drinking water service lines; and up to $10 million for information technology systems related to water supplies.
By DiNapoli’s estimate more than $5 billion has been spent by the state and federal government on local water systems over the past 20 years.
Among the recommendations from the Comptroller’s Office: •Create a statewide response plan, with public input, to effectively address drinking water contamination incidents.
"Water contamination incidents in the Village of Hoosick Falls and the City of Newburgh illustrate the vulnerabilities of the current regulatory structure," the comptroller’s office said in its report.

Creating Freshwater From Salt Water Using Only Solar Energy.
The desalination system, which uses a combination of membrane distillation technology and light-harvesting nanophotonics, is the first major innovation from the Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), a multi-institutional engineering research center based at Rice University.
NEWT’s "nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation" technology, or NESMD, combines tried-and-true water treatment methods with cutting-edge nanotechnology that converts sunlight to heat.
"Direct solar desalination could be a game changer for some of the estimated 1 billion people who lack access to clean drinking water," said Rice scientist and water treatment expert Qilin Li, a corresponding author on the study.
Distillation has been used for centuries, but it requires complex infrastructure and is energy inefficient due to the amount of heat required to boil water and produce steam.
An emerging technology for desalination is membrane distillation, where hot salt water is flowed across one side of a porous membrane and cold freshwater is flowed across the other.
By adding low-cost, commercially available nanoparticles to a porous membrane, NEWT has essentially turned the membrane itself into a one-sided heating element that alone heats the water to drive membrane distillation.
Li, the leader of NEWT’s advanced treatment test beds at Rice, said the water production rate increased greatly by concentrating the sunlight.
For example, if you need 20 liters per hour, and the panels produce 6 liters per hour per square meter, you would order a little over 3 square meters of panels."
Established by the National Science Foundation in 2015, NEWT aims to develop compact, mobile, off-grid water-treatment systems that can provide clean water to millions of people who lack it and make U.S. energy production more sustainable and cost-effective.

USAID Afghanistan – Jobs Creation Program (AJCP) with WASH component.
USAID Afghanistan – Jobs Creation Program (AJCP) with WASH component, June 19, 2017 Link to more information.
As the economy grows and expands, providing access to potable water and the adoption of badly needed phytosanitary standards can begin to be instituted which will benefit multiple industry and service sectors.
Further, safe, clean water and sanitary facilities are critical to value chain development as well as conducting commerce in high population urban and peri-urban areas.
As the Afghan workforce becomes better educated as a result of workplace interventions and education on standards for proper sanitation and hygiene practices, the households and ultimately communities will respond by adopting new and sustained hygienic practices.
These practices will help reduce wide-spread disease, diminishing workplace absenteeism and ensure a healthy and capable workforce.
The WASH supply and value chain will benefit from and contribute to the growth of new employment opportunities and make major contributions to these value chains that rely on clean water, hygienic conditions and sanitary environments to achieve value chain development are met.
Through this APS, USAID aims to promote wider adoption of improved sanitation facilities within households, workplaces, and other private sector facilities and encourage new and innovative WASH technology utilization.
These initiatives help support ‘best of class’ business practices that demand adoption of international standards, including hygienic business practices, especially where high-value fruits and vegetables enter the global food chain.
Through this APS, USAID particularly aims to develop domestic markets for improved sanitation facilities within households, workplaces, and other private sector facilities.