Anna Luisa Beserra has known for a long time that the sun is lethal to viruses and bacteria. That is why she invented a device to purify water through the very solar energy, with no chemicals.
Beserra is 21 years old. The United Nations has just recognized her for this innovative technology with the Young Champions of the Earth Award, which the UN has been awarding since 2017.
The technology Beserra developed is called Aqualuz and seeks to serve the countryside of the semi-arid region of northeast Brazil with a rainwater collection system. With solar energy, this water becomes suitable for consumption.
“These rural communities need to store water during the rainy season so they don’t have to walk long distances in the driest seasons. Sometimes the water is infected with disease transmitters, it is not often clean,” Beserra argues as quoted in a UN Environment report.
Beserra explained to the BBC that Aqualuz takes advantage of ultraviolet radiation to kill the microorganisms that pollute the water. If ultraviolet rays are harmful to human skin, they are deadly to viruses and bacteria.
“My main problem was convincing people that the sun can indeed disinfect water,” Beserra adds in a separate UN Environment video. This is, however, a principle recommended by UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
Aqualuz looks like a sink for washing dishes. It works like a filter that purifies rainwater, with a device that changes color when that water becomes drinkable, a circle that is at the bottom of the container that functions as a filter. The process of purification takes two to six hours.
Beserra explains on the Young Champions of the Earth award website that the device is low-cost –$125– and that it has a useful life of 20 years. Its components are recyclable and easy to clean, with soap and water.
“In Brazil alone, it can serve more than 1.2 million families with existing cisterns. No chemical is used that is harmful to health or nature. The negative impact of the use of chlorine in water is replaced by sunlight. We have already reached more than 150 people with access to drinking water and we plan to reach 700 people by the end of 2019,” Beserra says on the web.
According to the UN, every two minutes a child dies from diseases caused by water pollution. Diarrhea is the most common of theses diseases. The World Health Organization has identified others, ranging from legionellosis, caused by aerosol contaminants, to schistosomiasis, malaria and dengue fever.
Aqualuz may be applicable in other countries.
Anna Luisa Beserra is from Salvador de Bahia, precisely in northeastern Brazil. She was 15 years old, in 2013, when she began working on experiments for water treatment, after winning a scholarship for young scientists granted by the government’s National Council for Scientific Development.
In 2015, she founded the startup Safe Drinking Water for All, which aims to develop technologies like Aqualuz.
“I’m doing something that I hope will improve people’s lives and save lives. My vision is to reach more than one million families in Brazil. Everyone deserves to drink clean water,” she said.