With limited sources of water available in the western U.S. and developing countries, The Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Agency for International Development are looking for innovations that may help meet the growing challenge of water scarcity, and have launched a on a contest for innovators to come up with small, affordable, and sustainable desalination systems.
Sixty-eight teams from 29 different countries entered to compete for the Desal Prize, which offers $200,000 in prize funds for small, affordable, desalination technologies using renewable energy that can offer potable water for humans as well as water for crops in developing countries.
Randy Shaw is the facility manager of the Bureau of Reclamation Brackish Groundwater National Desalination and Research Facility in Alamogordo. He says a panel of judges has picked the five finalists for the Desal Prize. The competition started this week in Alamogordo with teams competing, the final competition is Saturday.
“All teams will start with the same amount of brackish water, and they’ll have 24 hours to process that water into potable water and agriculture water,” says Shaw.
Shaw says as water supplies dwindle across the world, more communities will look towards desalination as part of the way to take on water scarcity.
“There are approximately two billion people living on the planet in water stressed conditions. As far as the United States-you have the western 17 states that are arid, and in the last twenty years or so seem to be in continuously in water stressed conditions, and more and more municipalities living in these arid areas are going to be looking at different ways to stretch their water supplies and in creating new, enhanced water supplies.”
The Public is invited to tour the Bureau of Reclamation Brackish Groundwater National Desalination and Research facility in Alamogordo, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 11 to observe the technologies that are in competition for the Desal prize.
