Sustainable solutions for solar energy driven drinking water supply for rural settings in Sub-Saharan Africa: a case study of Nigeria

The lack of safe drinking water and electricity in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa is extremely alarming and, together with progressing climate change and political conflicts, increasingly impairing economic development. Only robust technologies of autonomous water treatment systems driven by solar electricity based on sustainable economic concepts can provide clean water and electricity at affordable prices. Technologies for water cleaning combined with off-grid electrification are analyzed for their suitability under different conditions, exemplified for Nigeria, and economically feasible concepts are developed for different target groups: (i) single-farmer concept providing electricity from PV, UV-treated drinking water and irrigation water, and generating income from selling increased crop yields; (ii) farmer cooperative; (iii) community concept, with additional income generation from selling water and electricity; and (iv) rural kiosk concept selling electricity and water, and offering further goods and services. In the latter three concepts, high quantities of drinking water and electricity are supplied by an autonomous, PV-driven water cleaning system with disinfection based on anodic oxidation and in situ chlorine production. Only if economically sustainable can drinking water and electricity supply be achieved at a global level, and the UN sustainable development goals be reached. In the framework of a rural community concept, a pilot project starts in Abuja/Nigeria based on the anodic oxidation system for water treatment with an intelligent payment systems and provision of solar-based electricity. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.