Facing rising water and energy prices and exploding health costs, more and more people begin to realize the immense value of an independent solar based water treatment system.

Zonnewater (sun-water), the Dutch inventor of break-through solar water treatment systems, was present on the recent (May 2005) Conference "Desalination and the Environment" in Italy, which prove to be a surprise success. Zonnewater won an award for best poster presentation among the 150 present, and a large number of valuable new contacts were established. The company now is confident to move ahead and rapidly enter the market globally after cooperation agreements with partners in Europe, India, China, Australia and the America's are signed.

"Facing rising water and energy prices and exploding health costs, more and more people begin to realize the immense value of an independent solar based water treatment system." says Jan de Koning, founder of Zonnewater and inventor of the Aqua Solaris Family Well that in its basic version produces 40 litres of fresh water from almost any kind of water source, including degraded wells, polluted rivers, contaminated water (e.g. arsenic in ground water) and naturally sea water.

The Family Well is only the first step on a path towards an entire line of related and supporting products as well as a number of surprising spin-off applications on different scales. Dr. Stefan Thiesen, science and communications manager at Zonnewater, points out an example: "We are using the same fibres applied as surface enhancer in the Aqua Solaris for salt production in a first test plant on the Island of Bonaire. Now a big problem of large scale Desalination plants around the world is the environmental impact of brine effluent that is normally discharged into the sea. Our system will allow it to turn this problem into a profitable advantage by combining brine treatment and salt production."

But the main focus of Zonnewater is to bring water to the disadvantaged people of the planet. Stefan Thiesen: "We believe that private does not necessarily mean evil. The world needs a new business vision that is based upon cooperation and that puts human well-being back into the focus of economic activities. We are very happy to see that we were able to find cooperation partners with similar visions. Currently negotiations about cooperation and final production are in an advanced state, and we firmly believe the future is bright for solar water treatment."