A couple from South Carolina is the first from America to receive the prestigious global science award for their work in getting clean water to many nations.
George and Molly Greene are founders of Water Missions International, which provides water wells in Third World countries where clean water is scarce. They are in Frankfurt, Germany to receive the eighth Solar World Einstein Award.
Molly Greene tells OneNewsNow what solar energy has to do with providing clean water.
"We're using very high-technology pumps, and the pumps are powered by the solar panels," she explains. "We have to pump the water from wherever we're getting it -- either a well, a bore hole, a lake, a river -- and it gets pumped through the water treatment system."
Greene says the need for the Living Water Treatment System is great.
"Well, we have done close to a thousand projects around the world since Water Missions International began," she shares. "There are about a billion people who lack access to safe water around the world, and we've only connected with about two million of them, so, we're scratching the surface."
Where the work has been done, the wells are already saving lives, because the people had been using water from disease-laden sources for centuries.