In the west such devices would largely be a niche in the outdoors recreation industry. Plus you generally have to go out of your way to be informed about Africa enough to know what’s really happening locally. (Not a dig on Africa, and western media could stand to be more…”inclusive.”)

So until proven otherwise, it’s possible many technologies have traction in water treatment in Africa and we just dont know.

Really though Africans are a widely disparate group. It’s worth approaching with humility.

They need a lot of energy to extract the fase conversion heat from the vapor and transform it into liquid water. Just see any of the videos from https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thunderf00t+wat... (Each one is a different device, but the physis problem is the same, so watching 2 or 3 is enough.)

Many here are engineers and scientists interested in smart ideas and devices. We Woz types seek a Jobs type to fret about economics.

Sometimes an unprofitable idea suddenly becomes profitable due to changing technology, circumstances and people.

The ideas are still cool.

And sometimes, we collectively give away devices to purify water, save lives, or keep away mosquitoes -- out of compassion. It's not dead yet.

for reference: several pages of posts on desalination https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...