Sharm el Sheikh
need to know
(
23
)
number of years that Dahab has had
electricity
(
1,200
)
species of fish in the Red Sea, of which
17%
are only found here
(
115
)
shipwrecks are in the Red Sea, plus the
remains of an oil rig
easyJet
flies to Sharm el Sheik from three
destinations. See our insider guide on
page 167. Book online at easyJet.com
easyJet Holidays
Seven nights all-inclusive at the four-
star Tiran Island hotel, departing on 25
January from London Luton, costs £251
per person via easyJet.com/holidays*
La Meridien Dahab Resort
Overlooking the Gulf of Aqaba, this luxury
5-
star hotel has windsurfing, diving and a
kids club. Book at hotels.easyJet.com
maintain units in North Africa. Together they have started
to see results. For instance, the El Quseir Radisson BLU
Resort bought in the technology and, earlier this year,
Juul Andersen managed a nine-month test of a two-unit
system, trialled as an EcoInnovation project, at Oriental
Resort, Nabq Bay. This site was drawing on a mix of
sewage and Red Sea water, which is some of the saltiest
in the world. These WaterStillar installations have
attracted the praise of the Red Sea Environmental Centre
(
RSEC) and have even become a popular feature of
university field trips in the region.
WaterStillar Egypt has also run systems on ground salt
water in Cairo and on brine from reverse-osmosis plants,
while Heller runs an installation in his garage, which
draws on water from a well in the garden.
Back in Dahab, Dr Hazem Fouda, whose PhD is in
agricultural sciences, says WaterStillar is particularly
suitable for Bedouins, because it “is super-efficient
and intuitive, while allowing for independent living in
harmony with one’s surroundings.”
“
Us Westerners, who barely venture outside the hotel
pool areas, often fail to realise that people are really
struggling to make things work here,” says Juul Andersen.
“
There is no electricity or local know-how [in the Bedouin
villages].” WaterStillar Egypt plans to run systems for a
contracted number of years – in Juul Andersen’s words,
to “sell the water, not ownership or responsibility for
the technology” – and the company throws in free
maintenance and technical support.
Past rivals have included the EU’s now defunct Sodesa
project, which purified only 20 litres per day, and a device
called WaterPyramid, which costs an eye-watering
€20,000 to purchase. In comparison, the WaterStillar
technology is cheap, clean and can produce water in
suitably large volumes.
“
Earlier solar still concepts were so inefficient that you
would need to operate five or 10 in the desert to survive,”
says Juul Anderson, who intends to sell the concept across
the Middle East. “[Now we can] bring more clean water to
people who really need it.”
The last rainfall was
nearly three years ago.
There is simply not enough
of what has been termed, in
some circles, ‘blue gold’
HOWDOESWATERSTILLARWORK?
A solar-powered pump
feeds impure water into
the top of the collector,
where the sun’s heat is
used to evaporate it.
The apparatus has no
moving parts, making
it perfect for the desert.
It uses gravity to
move the water,
which is collected as
condensation after the
sun evaporates it.
Within the system,
there’s never any physical
contact between the feed
water and the resulting
product, which is 100%
clean drinking water.
*
FOR T&CS SEE P173
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T E C H N O L O G Y
S H A R M E L S H E I K H
