An announcement
made by the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) highlighted its support for an innovative
technology that will improve access to quality drinking water in urban and
remote areas of the Philippines through the use of hydropanels.
A new technology will improve the access of
Filipinos living in the urban and remote areas. The ADB is collaborating with Zero Mass Water,
Inc (ZMW) and the Philippine National Electrification Administration
(NEA) on this new technology that produces drinking water from sunlight and
air.
SOURCE Hydropanels is developed by the
US-based ZMW. It is an off-grid, solar-powered technology which extracts water
vapour from the air into a proprietary absorbent material.
The water flows into a reservoir where it
is mineralised with calcium and magnesium for health and taste benefits. Not
only does it provide high quality drinking water, but it also eliminates
plastic pollution since each hydropanel displaces up to 50,000 standard PET
bottles. Moreover, the panels are 98% recyclable and have a 15-year lifespan.
ADB has already installed a SOURCE
Hyrdopanel array at its headquarters in Manila in 2017. This is to reduce usage
of bottled water at the same time serves as an opportunity to showcase the
technology for possible implementation in different parts of the country.
NEA, with the cooperation and support of
ZMW and ADB, will be deploying a total of 40 SOURCE hydropanel units to eight
island communities in the Philippines in the coming months.
ADB extended a grant worth $80,000 to NEA
to purchase the solar hydropanels. This is exclusive of installation cost that
will be shouldered as counterpart funding of the NEA.
ADB Energy Sector Group Chief Mr Yongping
Zhai said, “The deployment of climate-proof drinking water through the SOURCE
Hydropanels will help address the water supply problems in rural and off-grid
areas, especially in small islands in the Philippines which lack access to both
reliable drinking water and electricity.”
He added, “We hope that, through this pilot
project, we can demonstrate the viability of this innovative technology.”
Once ADB and NEA are satisfied with the
results of the pilot, NEA may possibly deploy it on a larger scale.
ZMW Founder and CEO Mr Cody Friesen said, “We
are thrilled to partner with ADB and NEA to deploy SOURCE Hydropanels as an
innovative solution to the many drinking water challenges in the Philippines.”
He added, “The Philippines’ fragmented
geography adds extra barriers for reliance on traditional water infrastructure,
yet makes it ideal for our technology providing families, communities, and
businesses with drinking water resilience in the form of a sustainable drinking
water supply.”
ZMW aims to make safe, high-quality
drinking water available to people in developing countries through the use of
SOURCE Hydropanels. The company is partnering with its distributor, Green Heat,
to deploy hydropanels across the Philippines.
NEA is focused on strengthening its
partners in the rural electrification program, the electric cooperatives, by
ensuring that they become more efficient, reliable and globally competitive.