Solar-powered desalination plants and handcrafted filters: innovative water treatment solutions in Egypt
The Middle East and North Africa are the world’s most water-stressed regions. With global water demand on the rise, the World Resources Institute estimates that 100% of the region’s population will live with high water stress by 2050. Water scarcity is already prompting governments to decrease their reliance on non-renewable water resources. As public sectors continue to diversify water sources, start-ups are also emerging that offer innovative and cost-effective solutions, benefitting underserved and rural communities.
Egypt faces extreme water stress and insecurity due to its rapidly growing population and limited water resources. Water insecurity in Egypt is further exacerbated by tensions associated with resource-sharing; the Nile River supplies Egypt with around 90% of its water supply, and Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, being filled with upstream Nile waters, has threatened Egypt’s future access to this water supply. In 2021, FAO reported that the country “is moving towards absolute water scarcity with less than 500 m3 per capita of annual water supply.” This places Egypt below the water poverty line, with the UN warning that it could “run out of water by 2025.”
The public sector has sought to mitigate the issue, including by inaugurating the world’s largest water treatment facility, the New Delta Irrigation Water Treatment Plant, which produces 7.5 million m3 per day of agricultural drainage water. In 2023, the Ministry of International Cooperation launched the Nexus of Water, Food, and Energy (NWFE) program and is working with the African Development Bank and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development to design water desalination and solar pumping projects.
Water-focused startups have also emerged to further increase access to water for underserved communities. One is NoorNation, a renewable energy startup providing off-grid, decentralized energy and water infrastructure solutions to communities in Egypt and across Africa. The startup’s signature product, LifeBox, is a “solar-powered, self-contained, and fast-deployable unit” that delivers clean energy and water at an affordable price. Primarily installed in farms, LifeBox has provided access to affordable and clean water for crop irrigation. A solar-powered water pump equipped with a desalination unit also provides clean drinking water. As of 2023, LifeBox has desalinated over 3 million liters of water and generated 1.2k MWh of clean energy. Farmers using LifeBox are no longer reliant on costly and volatile centralized energy and water infrastructure. NoorNation aims to impact 1 million lives across Africa by 2030. Other initiatives, such as social startup Water Will’s “Buy Me Filter” initiative, use more traditional approaches to filtering water. Water Will manufactures handcrafted, affordable ceramic water filters that can be purchased and donated to families living in rural areas.
As initiatives focused on clean water access increase, these private sector actors are leveraging innovation and technology to serve communities that could otherwise be difficult for the public sector to reach.
