Egypt is facing a growing water crisis due to its arid climate, limited water resources, and rapidly increasing population. The country of 114 million people depends heavily on the longest river in the world, the Nile, for fresh water. But rising demand for water in Egypt and from upstream users of the Nile’s water (like Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) means the Nile is no longer enough.
Chemical engineer Thokozani Majozi was part of a team who built a model of a new wind-powered reverse osmosis desalination system. These use energy from the leftover salty water to power the plant. The team found that this model could work well in very windy coastal resorts. Water systems like this are resilient to climate change. Water agencies are currently lobbying the G20, led this year by South Africa, to dedicate much more finance to setting these up.
