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Off-grid coastal and island communities cannot sustain conventional desalination for safe drinking water

#00052

Coastal, island, and remote communities sit beside seawater but lack safe drinking water. Conventional desalination (RO, thermal) requires reliable power, capital, trained technicians, and supply chains they don't have — and discharges brine that harms local ecosystems.

OverviewSolutionsIssuesFundingTree View

16 nodes

#00053 Decentralized water systems fail after installation from maintenance, spare-parts and ownership gaps
0
#00055 Professionalized, results-based maintenance service paid for by uptime (not community self-management)
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#00046 Kitui & Kwale Counties, KenyaSuccess
#00047 Southern Africa (South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Eswatini)Failed
#00054 Brine discharge from conventional desalination damages the coastal ecosystems these communities depend on
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#00056 Passive solar-thermal interfacial crystallizer using laser-textured superwicking black metal
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#00048 University of Rochester, New York, USAPartial
#00060 Passive solar throughput (~10 L/m²/day) means collector area scales directly with population served
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#00061 Demonstrated only at centimetre lab scale over days — deployment-scale, multi-year durability is unproven
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#00057 Containerized solar-PV reverse osmosis operated by the local community
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#00049 Kiunga, KenyaSuccess
#00058 Coastal fog harvesting with mesh collectors where advection fog is reliable
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#00050 Aït Baamrane, Sidi Ifni, MoroccoSuccess
#00051 Chungungo / El Tofo, Coquimbo Region, ChileFailed
#00059 Passive solar still (basin distillation) — the simplest, most durable, most area-hungry option
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#00052 Las Salinas, Atacama Desert, ChileSuccess
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