Accra, March 27, GNA - HelioTech Limited, a German-based organization, on Friday introduced a water treatment system that uses solar energy to purify any form of contaminated water or salty water into potable drinking water. Mr. Ralf Keller, Director of Marketing, HelioTech, announced this at a day's seminar to introduce the technology to stakeholders in the water industry.

He said the equipment had the capacity to purify or desalinate about 50 to 5,000 litres of water a day and was useable at any location where there was sunlight and access to any kind of water. Desalination is a process that involves removing salt or harmful particles from water. Mr Keller noted that about 1.1 billion people the world over did not have access to safe drinking water and in Ghana even though about 79 per cent of people had access to water, large quantities of water used at the household level in various communities were brackish, salted or contaminated with iron or germs. The equipment, which cost about GH¢6,000 cedis, takes about two to three hours to be installed. Comparing the HelioTech Solar Water treatment system to another technology called "Reverse Osmosis system", Mr Keller said, with the HelioTech system, there was no need for specialist training to run the system, no energy cost and can be used in rural areas provided there was sunlight.

He said the technology was designed with the intention to help, especially developing countries meet the Millennium Development Goal target on water, which aims at providing half the population of people in various countries with access to safe drinking water by 2015. Mr Keller announced that HelioTech had arranged with Fidelity Bank Ghana to provide funds in a form of loans to those interested in buying the equipment. Nii Amasa Namoale, Member of Parliament for La, Dadekotopon, said the technology was a good innovation and advised non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and individuals to patronize the product and send it to villages that had salty drinking water. Mr Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, Renewable Energy Expert at the Ministry of Energy, who chaired the seminar, pointed out that Ghana was faced with a lot of challenges when it came to providing potable drinking water.

"If solar can be used to make water available for mankind, it is only important that we accept such a technology," he said.