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Solar drinking water supply

Many projects have shown that using a conventional circle pump to get clean drinking water often lead to extensive water wasting. This is due to the necessity of digging deep boreholes and the more water was delivered, the more water was wasted in the end.

Solar drinking water supply // Solar Trinkwasserversorgung

A human only needs 7-10 liters drinking/cooking water daily, while the rest is used for washing or household chores. In water-rare areas, restraining from wasting valuable drinking water is priority and ecological methods to treat surface water of rivers or ponds through filtration plants, should be considered to protect the environment and ensure stable water supply to the villages. 

Use case:

On a clear, sunny day a small-sized PVP system with an installed solar module of 12 Wp (LJ1012) will pump approximately 300 liters water per day to a height of 6 meters. It can supply drinking/cooking water for up to 30 people. Young and healthy villagers could, depending on water quality, drink this water, but also elderly people and children could obtain their drinking water from this source after it has been filtered through an additional process.

Small and decentralized usable pumps are ideal for developing countries with electricity problems. The cost of drilling a deep borehole demands a huge investment and a mistake means a significant loss of time and money. With LIUJIA solar pumps LJ3012, LJ2012, LJ1012 one is able to use many simple and decentral located boreholes next to rivers or lakes, where underground water lies fairly close to the surface. If many small wells are built, it wouldn’t impact groundwater resources negatively. Additionally, the pump is perfectly suitable to deliver rainwater from underground containers in dry periods. Decentralization is advantageous for families in remote areas: a little well in the backyard supplies a few families with enough water and saves them the long way to the public pump station. Therefore, costly distribution of water, water loss during transportation and energy used during transportation can be saved. The created efficiency and energy can be usefully spent on improving living conditions in the area.

If people don’t need to move into cities or villages for better living conditions, ground and other natural resources can be shared more equally in the future. This solution is not only cost effective, but it is also realizable by people without any technical knowledge.

The picture below shows how the harmful element arsenic can be removed from groundwater. Instead of using a hand pump, the LIUJIA solar submersible pump uses the sun's energy and generated water pressure to reach its goal.

Arup K. SenGupta, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, Bethlehem, PA 18015, U.S.A.

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