A team from the University of Toronto is investigating how solar-powered, UV LED lights can zap the pathogens in harvested rainwater, so that households no longer have to spend a huge part of their income on expensive bottled water.
According to Unicef, turning on the tap to pour a glass of clean drinking water is still little more than a pipe dream for more than 2 billion people across the world. In Mexico, the issue is particularly acute, with around 57% of the population still lacking easy access to clean drinking water, due to a mixture of an ageing infrastructure and population growth, as well as extreme heat, droughts and floods caused by climate change.
