New RCSI-led water project to increase affordable access to safe drinking water

A major international research project led by researchers at RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) in Dublin is developing low-cost technologies to reduce the number of people worldwide who rely on unsafe drinking water. The WATERSPOUTT consortium has been awarded €3.6 million by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme to provide affordable access to safe drinking water in remote and vulnerable communities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and other resource-poor countries.

Solar water disinfection (SODIS) is a household water treatment that uses sunlight to kill harmful microbes in water stored in transparent containers and is used by 5 million people in developing countries on a daily basis. However, 660 million people around the world remain without sustainable access to safe drinking water. WATERSPOUTT aims to increase the number of people who use SODIS by developing technologies that will allow larger volumes of water to be treated. Rather than having to use numerous standard two-litre bottles, which is using the current standard SODIS process, these WATERSPOUTT technologies will provide households with larger volumes of up to 20 litres of treated water per day, using just one container.

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