My Nonprofit Reviews

HYDRO-PANELS: One Great Idea
By Stefano Dessena
HAF Intern

What can you do when you can’t count on the abundance of natural resources? You
can count on the insights of creative people, and that is our case. This time one great
idea can help a lot of people in need and can change their lives.
The access to clean water is an enormous problem to the 311 children of the school
Zawiyat Sidi Boutayeb in the area of El Youssoufia, where the parents association is
facing a lot of big struggles to find a proper solution. It’s here that the High Atlas
Foundation (HAF) wants to invest in a creative and genial solution but more than
anything else in an ecological solution: Hydro-Panels.
The “Source” panels come from the Zero Mass Water company with the objective to
develop a clean and eco-friendly way to create an access to clean water everywhere
even in extreme conditions.
Hydro Panels use the energy of the sun and the air to create clean and drinkable water
even in the desert. The regular array is formed by two solar panels. They can produce
from five to ten liters of water daily and store almost 60 liters. Panels have a special
absorbing material that can take only the water particles avoid airborne pollution and
then it can be mineralized with calcium and magnesium in a special storage. The
structure doesn’t need any external electricity or water supply to work properly and can
be mounted and be operative in a few hours, even in environmentally difficult areas.
But why is this an environmental and agricultural choice? The answer is very easy. Try
to imagine having a proper source of clean water in high mountains or even in an
isolated valley but without the problems of a well (sometimes way too expensive to
create and the water can be unclean). Further, the distance from the central water
supply and the locations where people seek to drink and cultivate can be too distant. It’s
wonderful, right? That’s what HAF has seen and what it’s trying to do for the school in
the area of El Youssoufia. With this idea all the students and their families will not have
the problem of access to clean water and they will be able to cultivate and benefit from
this great creation. The panels will work for decades, save water, and help to improve
the local economy.