SYDNEY, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- A small-scale desalination unit is helping secure water supplies for a remote Aboriginal boarding school in the state of Western Australia, demonstrating its potential to address rural water scarcity.
Developed by researchers at Australia's Murdoch University in collaboration with state government agencies, Water Corporation and industry partners, the off-grid unit turns salty groundwater into freshwater at Wongutha Christian Aboriginal Parent-Directed School, located more than 700 km from the state capital, Perth, according to a university statement released on Thursday.
The school, which cannot connect to the state's water grid, had relied on a nearby farm for water, but the supply's quality and quantity had steadily declined.
The unit, housed in a shipping container and powered by solar panels and batteries, also pumps rejected saline water to a nearby field of saltbush, a drought-resistant native plant used for livestock feed, the statement said.
Wongutha facilities manager Kris Nostrini said the unit had supplied more than 7.5 megaliters of water to the site, improving water quality and reliability for residents and students.
Although desalination technology has been commercially available since the late 1980s, research has largely focused on large-scale systems, prompting researchers to develop lower-cost, decentralized and off-grid solutions for rural communities and agriculture, it said.
The project is part of the state government's WaterSmart Farms initiative, which is evaluating more than 50 on-farm desalination units to assess the potential of local water and renewable energy to support farms and remote communities, according to Murdoch University.
