Using light, a prototype “green” material can purify enough daily drinking water for four people in just one hour. In tests, it killed nearly 100 percent of bacteria in 10 liters of water, researchers report February 7 in Chem.

The increased number of desalination plants around the world threatens the sustainable use of the technology, a study warns.

The UN-backed study, published today in the journal Science of The Total Environment online, cautions that the disposal of leftover brine into the sea is expensive, harms the environment and threatens the future use of sea water in desalination.

After rapid economic growth averaging 10% every year between 2004 and 2014, Ethiopia has emerged as an engine of development in Africa.
How investment in irrigation is paying off for Ethiopia's economy

In 2015, El Niño ran the province close to a point where it would run out of its available water. A network of 14 dams averted that fate. Now, the population has grown, water use has increased and supply is still at the same level.

In rural Mecosta County, Mich., sits a near-windowless facility with a footprint about the size of Buckingham Palace. It’s just one of Nestlé’s roughly 100 bottled water factories in 34 countries around the world.

Notable success has been achieved in providing all South Africans with access to water and sanitation since the advent of the democratic dispensation in 1994. However, water availability remains a concern.