Many young students develop school or university projects that are equal to great scientific discoveries, and that have the added value of being designed with a social sense, to help those who need it most.
This is the case, for example, of the young entrepreneur who makes windmills with scrap metal, or of these girls who got an important promise from the government of their country.
A similar new story is that of Nguyen Tan Loi, a 17-year-old Vietnamese student who invented a machine that produces fresh water from salt water.
Although it has currently developed a prototype, if the machine reaches the industrial production phase it could cost less than 45 dollars, so it would be an economic solution for many people who live without access to drinking water, but close to the sea.
Nguyen lives in the town of Ben Tre, capital of the province of the same name, which is located 71 kilometers southwest of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).
His great idea came to him after visiting an area of Vietnam with a very humble population, where drinking water is scarce. In May 2015, after learning about the reality in that region, he began to work looking for alternative ways to purify the water, and in a few months he managed to build an apartment that produced fresh water from salt water and obtained the energy from a solar panel to function sustainably.
This first model can produce enough water to drink, but the young man has big ambitions and stated that he plans to create a model with 7 tubes instead of one, which could produce 30 liters of water per day, enough to meet the need for a complete family.
According to the UN, some 884 million people in the world lack access to safe drinking water, although in 2010 access to drinking water and sanitation was recognized by the same international organization as a human right.
While other systems for purifying seawater have been invented and are being developed, such a device, which could be purchased relatively cheaply, would not require external power and could be used at home; but, above all, it would represent an important possibility of autonomy for many people who are still waiting for the full fulfillment of a right as basic as this one.