Thirst-quenching solutions for drought

Clean water from old bones and veg peelings

It may sound extraordinary but when Timothy Kayondo saw that people where he lives, in Uganda in east Africa, were getting sick from drinking dirty water he came up with a solution out of the rubbish bin.

Using his skills as a chemical engineer, Timothy roasts cow bones, fruit and vegetable peelings and other garbage into  a kind of charcoal called "activated carbon". He uses this as part of a nifty little device that filters bugs and dirt out of water. It works off solar power and so is used in places where there isn't much electricity.

Turning rain into drinking water

Over in Brazil, another clever gadget is helping people turn the rain that falls on their roof into water clean enough to drink. It's really helpful in parts of the country where it's mostly very dry and then, for short spells, it rains a lot. Using the chove chuva filter (the name comes from a famous Brazilian song that means "It's raining rain") lets people stock up on clean drinking water for the dry season.

A shower with just a small bucket of water

Taking a shower (and, even more, a bath) is the way that most of us use the most water in our day. Typically, depending on your plumbing and how long you spend washing yourself, a shower uses from 30 to 80 litres of water, according to official research.

But now students at Toulouse University in southwest France have come up with a way to use just 5 litres for a shower. That's about as much as in a rather small bucket. How do they do it? By recycling. They've built a pump and a filter that cleans the water as it flows into the drain and pushes it back up into the shower head.

Find out more about these solutions - and about how you too can find your superpower to make a difference and save water - in the WoW! News app.

‍