One of the issues that have the people's attention lately is providing clean water in third-world countries. And one of the best solutions to do that, so far, seems to be the Solvatten solar powered water purifier, unveiled by a Swedish inventor, Petra Wadstrom.

The device, which from the outside resembles a standard jerrycan, took eleven years to be developed and can be filled with up to 10 liters of water (there are two compartments which take 5 liters, each sporting a clear face), opened out and left in the Sun, which naturally heats the water to a pathogen-killing temperature of roughly 50-60 degrees Celsius. A simple indicator uses a red or green face to show users when the water is safe to drink.

Inventor Petra Wadstrom said that "My inspiration to work with Solvatten is the fact that people are living with dirty water around the world and children are suffering from bad water, which is easily preventable, but people are living with a lot of solar energy and not using it."

The Solvatten company has already tested its device in parts of Kenya, where  Wadstrom said that people using it gave a lot of positive feedback. "It's very easy to understand the method, and it's user friendly so you don't need to have technological skills to understand how to use it," she added.

The entire purification process takes about three to four hours when it’s sunny, and five to six when it's cloudy. While that's not perhaps the fastest way to cure water, the amount of resources it saves compared to boiling over gas stoves makes it ideal for ensuring some clean vital liquid will be on hand later.

UN Habitat and the Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) have also tried the Solvatten water purifier in Nepal, where thousands of people die every year as a result of waterborne diseases.

Bhushan Tuludhar, executive director of ENPHO in Nepal, said it was one of a number of water-purifying methods being tested for its effectiveness in supplying poor people with regular access to clean water. "Work is being done but at this current rate, central water treatment facilities that provide safe water to everybody are a distant dream," he said. "So what we need are point-of-use water treatment facilities, point-of-use water treatment technologies that are suitable to local conditions."

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