Drinking Water Supply in Rural Africa Based on a Mini-Grid Energy System—A Socio-Economic Case Study for Rural Development

Abstract

Water is an essential resource required for various human activities such as drinking, cooking, growing food, and personal hygiene. As a key infrastructure of public services, access to clean and safe drinking water is an essential factor for local socio-economic development. Despite various national and international efforts, water supply is often not guaranteed, especially in rural areas of Africa. Although many water resources are theoretically available in these areas, bodies of water are often contaminated with dangerous pathogens and pollutants. As a result, people, often women and children, have to travel long distances to collect water from taps and are exposed to dangers such as physical violence and accidents on their way. In this article, we present a socio-economic case study for rural development. We describe a drinking water treatment plant with an annual capacity of 10,950 m3 on Kibumba Island in Lake Victoria (Tanzania). The plant is operated by a photovoltaic mini-grid system with second-life lithium-ion battery storage. We describe the planning, the installation, and the start of operation of the water treatment system. In addition, we estimate the water prices achievable with the proposed system and compare it to existing sources of drinking water on Kibumba Island. Assuming a useful life of 15 years, the installed drinking water system is cost-neutral for the community at a cost price of 0.70 EUR/m3, 22% less than any other source of clean water on Kibumba Island. Access to safe and clean drinking water is a major step forward for the local population. We investigate the socio-economic added value using social and economic key indicators like health, education, and income. Hence, this approach may serve as a role model for community-owned drinking water systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Spatial distribution and determinants of limited access to improved drinking water service among households in Ethiopia based on the 2019 Ethiopian Mini Demographic and Health Survey: spatial and multilevel analyses

“…A statistically significant association was seen between the place of residence and limited access to improved drinking water service. This was in line with studies conducted in low-and middle-income countries (Gomez et al, 2019;Falk et al, 2022), Ethiopia (Andualem et al, 2021), Nepal (He et al, 2018), and Uganda (Hirai et al, 2016), which revealed that households found in rural areas have greater odds of having LAIDWS than households found in urban areas. This association was also seen among regions within the country.…”

“…The proportion of limited access to improved drinking water service in this study (16.1%) was in line with studies conducted in low-and middle-income countries (Gomez et al, 2019;Hasan and Alam, 2020) but less than a study conducted in Ghana (Tetteh et al, 2022). The possible explanation for the observed discrepancy might be due to the diverseness of countries regarding population growth and distribution, the socioeconomic status of the countries, and geographical variation (Adams, 2018;Falk et al, 2022). To assess the spatial distribution of limited access to improved drinking water service, analysis techniques such as spatial autocorrelation, hot spot, kriging interpolation, and spatial scan analysis were executed.…”

“…On the other hand, people who live in bigger cities such as Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa have a well-settled life and convenient provision of sustainable access to an improved drinking water service (Desta, 2010;Hasan and Alam, 2020). Furthermore, there exists unequal commitment and effectiveness of governmental and non-governmental organizations that work toward the provision of basic water supplementation (Falk et al, 2022).…”

“…There still is room for more advancements in overcoming the problem (World Health Organization United Nations Children's Fund, 2020). One existing reason for this problem is the fact that water resources in the country are either unevenly distributed or are being polluted by industrial, agricultural, and domestic wastes (Falk et al, 2022). On the other hand, a study conducted in 2022 reported that the most important emerging reason is unprecedented population growth and rapid urbanization along with climate change in the country.…”

Lifetime optimisation of integrated thermally- and electrically-driven solar desalination plants

“…Lifetime optimisation of solar-driven MED plants Further, the lower operating temperature of MED plants, compared to MSF installations, results in a lower risk of scaling [42]. MED plants also have the potential for smaller-capacity installations, supplying as little as 1.14 tonnes of clean water per day [43], which lends MED-driven desalination well to offgrid, community-scale contexts where access to clean drinking water [44] and electricity are likely to be lower [45].…”