Freshwater where infrastructure is hardest to reach.
IMPACT
Water scarcity looks different in every place.
Some communities are surrounded by seawater but depend on expensive imported or centrally produced freshwater. Others face increasing salinity in groundwater, limited distribution infrastructure or growing competition between households, agriculture, tourism and industry.
SALINA is being designed for this broader challenge: producing water closer to where it is needed, using an approach that aims to remain simple, modular and compatible with low-infrastructure environments.
THE CHALLENGE
POTENTIAL IMPACT
What SALINA could enable.
Decentralised Water Production
Lower Infrastructure Dependence
Produce freshwater closer to the point of need rather than relying entirely on large centralised plants and extensive distribution networks.
Reduce dependence on high-pressure equipment, large electrical systems and complex treatment infrastructure where simpler approaches may be more appropriate.
Local Resilience
Accessible Deployment
Support communities, facilities and agricultural users with an additional local water source that can complement existing water infrastructure.
Design around modular construction, practical maintenance and materials that could support deployment in locations with limited specialist capability.
LONG-TERM VISION | HUMANITARIAN POTENTIAL
Technology with a purpose beyond the laboratory.
SALINA’s longer-term ambition is not limited to commercial deployment. We are especially interested in how low-infrastructure desalination could support humanitarian projects, NGOs, educational programmes and communities facing persistent water scarcity.
This remains a future ambition rather than a current deployment programme, but it is one of the reasons affordability, simplicity and local operability remain central to the technology.
Designed around available resources.
SALINA is being developed around the use of solar energy, saline water sources and passive physical processes wherever practical.
The objective is not simply to produce freshwater, but to explore whether useful water production can be achieved with lower infrastructure intensity, reduced dependence on specialist systems and greater potential for local maintenance and adaptation.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND RESOURCE THINKING
Malta provides a natural environment in which to think seriously about water scarcity: limited freshwater resources, saline groundwater pressures, high dependence on desalination and a long relationship with the sea.
SALINA uses Malta as both inspiration and testing ground, with the longer-term ambition of transferring the lessons learned here to other island, coastal and water-stressed regions.
LOCAL TESTBED
The next steps require
partnerships.
Progressing SALINA from research and prototype development toward marine validation and eventual deployment will require collaboration across engineering, funding, public organisations, NGOs and future users.
We welcome conversations with organisations interested in helping test, develop and eventually deploy accessible desalination technologies.
FROM RESEARCH TO IMPACT
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