The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) has granted Cape Verde a $930,000 (USD) grant to develop the “world’s first wave-driven desalination system.”^[1] SEFA is a multi-donor trust fund that is rooted in a $60 million (USD) grant made by Denmark and the United States—to support renewable and efficient energy projects in Africa.^[2]  The plant, located in Praia Grande, Cape Verde, will operate off the grid, supplying up to 4,000 cubic metres of water a day to more than 48,000 people.^[3]  Resolute Marine Energy (RME) Cape Verde, which is a subsidiary of U.S.-based RME, will develop the project.

Surrounded by water, the ten-island archipelago that forms Cape Verde suffers from perpetual water shortages.  The country also has extremely limited access to sustainable water resources and relies primarily on imported fossil fuels, despite its abundance of renewable energy sources (i.e. solar, wind, and biomass).^[4]  The new desalination plant will help the country work towards its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy by 2020.^[5]

In Morocco, the first solar-powered desalination plant in the country has started operations.  Located near Marrakech, in the Green Energy Park of Ben Guerir, the plant will desalinate five cubic metres of water per hour, using both photovoltaic (PV) and thermal solar (membrane distillation) technologies.  The Moroccan Research Institute for Solar Energy and New Energies (IRESEN) has financed the project, which cost $450,000 (USD).^[6]  In 2011, IRESEN was founded by several Moroccan organizations, including: The Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water, and Environment; the National Agency for Renewable Energy Development and Energy Efficiency; and the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy.  The purpose of IRESEN is to support the nation’s research and development of solar energy and new energies.

In India, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has approved a half a dozen patents for water purification and desalination.   Recently, at the Indian Science Congress, DAE scientists revealed various applications for the use of radiation and radioisotopes in agriculture—to help diversify crops, control pests, and increase the availability of drinking water.^[7]  P. K. Tewari, a scientist in the field of membrane technology for water desalination and purification at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, has stated that the DAE’s “membrane-based water effluent treatment systems” can help to clean up the Ganges River.^[8] 

A holy man takes a dip in the Ganges River   Credit: Reuters/ IB Times

The Ganges is the largest river in India, originating in the Himalayas and pouring into the Bay of Bengal.  It is also the country’s most polluted river, tainted by industrial waste as well as sewage from the dozens of neighbouring settlements through which the river flows.^[9]  Recently, a team of experts from six different organizations revealed that more than two-thirds of the sewage generated in 118 towns along the Ganges river basin is discharged into the river untreated.  These towns produce over 3,636 million litres per day of sewage; while the treatment capacity of existing sewage treatment plants is barely 1,027 million litres per day.^[10]

Meanwhile, the river provides water to a tenth of the world’s population, and roughly 40 percent of the nation’s population (circa 500 million people).  Last year, India’s national government launched the “Namami Gange” plan to set up sewage treatment plans and units to clean the river.^[11]  The comprehensive action plan covers the short-term (3 years), medium-term (5 years), and long term (10 years and more).^[12]  The development of new technologies by the DAE may help support this monumental task.

Black & Veatch, a global engineering, consulting, construction, and operations company, has won two technical consultant contracts for desalination plants in Hong Kong and Singapore.  According to its contract with Hong Kong’s Water Supplies Department, Black & Veatch will design and supervise construction for the first stage of the city’s Tseung Kwan O Desalination plant.  The plant’s initial capacity of 136,300 cubic metres of water per day (36 million gallons per day) will provide 5 percent of the city’s water demand; and the second phase of development will add an additional 136,300 cubic metres per day.^[13]  Moreover, in Singapore, Black & Veatch has also won the national water agency’s award to develop the country’s fourth plant according to a design-build-own-operate (DBOO) arrangement.  Located in Marina East, the plant has a planned capacity of 136,300 cubic metres per day.^[14]