The process of SODIS uses solar energy (ultraviolet and infra-red radiation) to destroy pathogens that cause water-borne diseases. It has an equivalent disinfection effect to boiling water. SODIS is already used extensively throughout Latin America, Asia and Africa and extensive research on the technique has been carried out globally since the 1980s. For more information and a comprehensive list of research papers on SODIS globally, see Switzerland’s Eawag Aquatic Research Institute website at: http://www.sodis.ch/site/fachleute_EN.
SODIS has been successfully tested, trialled and launched in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati over the period 2014 – 2016 by the European Union-funded Global Climate Change Alliance: Pacific Small Island States (GCCA: PSIS) project implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC). The research component was also supported by SPC’s Water and Sanitation Programme and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
From 2016 onwards SODIS will be expanded throughout Kiribati and the Pacific island region with the help of SPC, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), among others.
Resources on SODIS can be downloaded below:
SODIS technical research report
SODIS instructional poster- English
I-Kiribati versions
SODIS instructional poster- Kiribati