1.4.2. Solar distillation
Distillation is the process of evaporating water and collecting the distillate. Distillation can successfully treat for
microbiological contaminates, as well as physical, chemical and radiological contaminants. However, distilled and
thus demineralized water has been shown to be harmful to the human body when consumed [21]. Additionally,
distillation typically has low efficiency [22], but commonly used for seawater / saline water treatment. Solar
distillation has been extensively studied [23-25]. The current project is focused on inland PNG with high rainfall and
freshwater rivers. Consequently, low efficiency systems suitable for seawater will not be suitable.