Page - 16 - in Clean Water Using Solar and Wind - Outside the Power Grid

16 Clean Water Using Solar and Wind: Outside the Power Grid Water professionals, key customers, financial institutions, health service providers and educators need to be involved and engaged in a collaborative effort. A system for clean water is built up of many components that must work together and operate reliably. The customer should not need to be an expert in operation or maintenance but should be able to make the basic actions and manoeuvres to run the system. Chapters 4–14 aim to explain processes and systems that can produce clean water and renewable energy so that water professionals and power engineers will understand each other better. Financing is a key condition for  success, so we will illustrate some financing approaches in Chapter 12. 1.7 OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK It is illustrated in Chapter 2 that the development of renewable energy is a key contribution to achieving climate goals. This development can also improve public health in poor regions. Clean water is a key factor, but also air pollution-related health hazards can be limited when solid fuels and kerosene are replaced by solar PV and wind. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) all closely depend on access to energy and to water. The development of renewable energy is nothing less than a revolution and gives for the first time a realistic opportunity to make electricity accessible to all. The main obstacle is not technology but political will, financing and education, as described in Chapter 3. In Part II (Chapters 4–7) we describe various water treatment technologies for small-scale operations. Pumping, discussed in Chapter 4, is a key operation in almost all water supply and treatment processes. Desalination and membrane technologies are expanding exceptionally fast and present new and realistic possibilities to clean contaminated groundwater or surface water, as illustrated in Chapter 5. In coastal areas seawater can be desalinated at a realistic cost. Most of the developing rural areas lacking electricity today are warm and rich in sunshine. This makes it possible to produce clean water with simple thermal technologies, using no electricity. This option is discussed in Chapter 6 and should be remembered as a complement to the processes supplied by electric power. Treatment of used water Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/520710/wio9781780409443.pdf by IWA Publishing user