This is quite interesting and useful, but it is only good for puryfing water that contains salts or other non-evaporable substances. If light fractions of petrol, per example, are present in the water, it will just evaporate too and condense on the sides, just like the water.
Still a good way to make saltwater drinkable though.

@Frank191 Agreed, but the product would still be better than drinking the non-evapourated polluted water that was put in there to begin with.

What sort of unclean water does Africa suffer from? I was under the impression that it was more about bacteria and feces contamination than petrol.
Regardless, this is an interesting idea. In regards for funding, maybe you can get people donating the cost - a sort of \'buy this African child clean drinking water\' thing.
This provides less than the SIDOS system but has the advantage in that it doesn\'t need any internal parts (like filters) replaced.

It\'s a great concept...a couple things are of concern however...one is that He hopes the plastic is going to be UV tolerant? I would think that a product that is intended to be placed in direct sunlight would be UV tolerant. The claim that it receives 360 degrees of sunlight is not possible with this design....as only 180 degrees of the product are clear in the picture...but a good start regardless! I like small ideas for big problems...if we wait for magic bullet big scale solutions were gonna be buried in our own mess before those can arise!

It strikes me that one might be able to simplify even further with a bit of plumbing that could be installed between natively available drink containers to stack them, such as 2 liter polycarbonate or plastic milk jugs. Lower jug holds input, higher jug provides condensation surface, junction bit separates vapor and fluid paths and provides a drain for output.

Frank said \"If light fractions of petrol, per example, are present in the water, it will just evaporate too and condense on the sides, just like the water.\"
Not a biggy. A few minor design or operational changes & you have clean distilled water.

I don\'t see how this is a breakthrough. There was a similar device back in the very early sixties for use on liferafts. Using the same principle of evaportion due to solar heat with subsequent collection of the condensate, it distilled fresh water from the sea water which was in plentiful supply - given that the liferaft was floating in it! IIRC the trade name was SolarStill and was tethered while afloat to the liferaft.

\"Buy a child in Cambodia a water ball. Give him/her a lifetime to play.\"
This play on words could show a happy child playing with a ball then the comparison of a Cambodia child struggling to drink dirty water. It should tug on the heartstrings of a population whose children play with out worry of clean drinking water.

\"The claim that it receives 360 degrees of sunlight is not possible with this design....as only 180 degrees of the product are clear in the picture\"
I think the 360 degrees refers to the horizontal plane which the design can receive. I guess if the device was supported high off the ground could it receive 360 decrease on the vertical plane.

Good idea. What about fitting it with a sectioned plastic flower-like mirror which would wrap around it in transit and then open up when used. Its purpose would be to increase the available energy of the system. Sections of the flower portion could overlap so that when it was opened, maximum area of reflection would become available.