The scarcity of clean water is an ever-increasing global problem and is already being exacerbated by climate change. To help the UN achieve its goal of reducing the number of people without access to clean water to one half of today’s level by 2015, a team from Siemens Water Technologies has developed the portable water-purification system SkyHydrant and established the SkyJuice Foundation to ensure the system will be used effectively in developing countries and disaster areas.
SkyHydrant purifies unclean water by pumping it through a membrane of ultra-fine fibers. It can produce up to 20,000 litres per day of exceptionally pure drinking water that surpasses World Health Organization (WHO) quality specifications.
To date, the SkyJuice Foundation has installed around 450 water purification units throughout Sri Lanka, Indonesia, East Timor, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Oman, Kenya, South, and Central America and India. The systems are installed in schools, hospitals, clinics, internally displaced persons camps, and villages. Thousands of people now have access to continuous, safe drinking water.
Siemens has also assisted the Singapore government in supplying much-needed fresh drinking water as about half the country’s requirement of water currently needs to be imported from Malaysia. Siemens provides a wastewater purification system that filters water to the required World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards. A water purification plant in Kranji is now being expanded. By 2012, its capacity will be boosted to 210,000 m³ per day in order to meet 20 % of the city’s water requirements.