Executive Summary : | The sustenance of life on this planet is predominantly reliant on water. About 71% of the Earth is covered by water, most of which is the ocean. A meager 2.5% is available as freshwater. Out of this only 1% is easily accessible. It is estimated that two-thirds of the world population will live in water-stressed areas by the year 2025 (National Geographic, 2019). The crisis of water scarcity features in the top five risks in the Global Risk Report published by the World Economic Forum. Composite Water Management Index published by NitiAyog reveals that 600 million Indians reside in high or extreme water-stressed zones. In addition, it is further estimated that 21 Indian cities are under the risk of running out of groundwater by the next decade (NITI Ayog, 2019). There is also a huge generation of waste water in India which is mostly mismanaged and remains untreated. This contributes to water-borne diseases mainly in the rural regions. In a bid to ensure water security the government has recently initiated the Jal shakti Abhiyan. Piped water is promised to be made available to every household in the country by 2024 (The Hindu Businessline, 2019). Even though solar still is a suitable and recommended device for the supply of potable water for domestic use in remote and rural India, it is not popular. studies are going on to identify the defects and redesign them to make them suit the requirement of the people. A small family of 4 or 5 members needs 10 to 15 liters of potable water per day. A family has to install and manage 4 or 5 solar stills to obtain the required water. This is a cumbersome and difficult task. so households prefer electrically operated water purifiers in the place of solar stills, even though the installation and maintenance cost is high. so there is an urgent need to device a solar still that meets the entire potable water requirement. The new solar still design is intended to make a water supply of 10 to 15 liters of water per day for domestic applications |