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Comment by tonylemesmer | Hacker News Reader

Has anyone tested the long term viability? Contamination, dust, mildew, flies etc.? Seems like a good idea but I venture the water would need further processing. Still, looks like a better starting point than where many communities are now.

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As long as the water is reasonably clear, just leaving it in a plastic bottle in the sun for a day or so will get the water safe enough to drink.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection

http://www.irinnews.org/report/79172/benin-sunshine-plastic-...

And this water is not ground water - so all of the many, many normal types of ground pollution are being avoided.

You're supposed not to drink water from a plastic bottle which has been exposed for some time to the sun.

The amount of time matters. The 5 hours required for solar disinfecting is far less than the time a plastic bottle will degrade in the sun and contaminate the contained liquids.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET - commonly used for soda bottles) can withstand direct sunlight for 5 years. There's leeching occurring throughout the degradation, and I can't find any trustworthy research on leeched PET harm when ingested repeatedly over a lifetime, but a few hours in the sun is pretty far from the danger zone.

All things equal, I'd rather deal with a small risk associated with pollutants leeching from the bottle, than the much higher risk associated with diarrhea-causing organisms in the water.

I'm Sorry, I should have been more specific. I was referring to potential moss / buildup on the structure itself.

Yeah, I was thinking about whether or not bacteria and other harmful microorganisms could grow in the water that collected too. I suppose, if nothing else, it could be boiled before consumption.

In many impoverished areas, there is a high correlation between lack of clean drinking water and lack of fuel sources.

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