Alice Springs community wins decades-long fight for access to clean drinking water

An Australian community struggling in “third-world conditions” finally has access to clean drinking water after a lengthy fight.

An Indigenous community that has fought for decades for basic utilities despite being just a five-minute drive from Alice Springs finally has access to clean drinking water.

American company Source Global has installed its hydropanels in Irrkerlantye, with the innovative solar-powered technology capturing water vapour from the air, turning it into liquid and adding minerals to make it safe to drink.

Australian basketball legend Patty Mills has previously partnered with Source to bring drinking water to six other remote communities.

Mills and Source founder Cody Friesen headlined an event in New York last week to spruik the technology during the first United Nations water conference held in almost half a century.

Irrkerlantye (White Gate) Traditional Owner Felicity Hayes teaches the younger generation at Trephina Gorge near Alice Springs. Picture: Riley Walter

The Advertiser revealed last month how Irrkerlantye’s population of 15 to 20 people struggled in “third-world conditions” without reliable electricity, sewerage or running water.

Irrkerlantye elder Felicity Hayes said Source’s partnership with First Nations organisation Children’s Ground to deliver clean drinking water would make a “huge difference” for her community, which is three kilometres from the centre of Alice Springs.

“You can turn a tap on and drink the water at houses down the road from us, less than a kilometre away. The installation of Source hydropanels changes everything,” she said.

Residents at White Gate, a camp outside of Alice Springs, are forced to sleep outside due to living conditions in the small tin sheds they call home. Picture: Riley Walter

Describing clean drinking water as a “basic human right”, she said: “There are real solutions that can work to solve these problems now.”

Children’s Ground chief Jane Vadiveloo agreed, saying it was “unacceptable that so many remote Indigenous communities in Australia still face significant challenges in accessing this essential resource”.

“Our collaboration with Source demonstrates how innovative technologies can begin to address the critical, long-term issues of remote Indigenous communities across Australia,” she said.

John Hayes says residents at White Gate need more support from the government. Picture: Riley Walter

Northern Territory Water Security Minister Lauren Moss also attended last week’s UN conference in New York, and said it provided a “valuable platform for learning from countries across the world which have experiences and insights to share”.

“The Northern Territory faces diverse challenges and responsibilities in ensuring long-term security of water resources,” she said.

The temperature reaches 35C inside John Hayes' home at White Gate. Picture: Riley Walter

Source market development director Alex Polson said the company’s technology could provide “renewable, drought-proof drinking water to support the health and sustainability of local Indigenous communities”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the conference that water was “humanity’s lifeblood” but that the world was draining it “through vampiric over consumption and unsustainable use and evaporating it through global heating”.

With about two billion people lacking access to safe drinking water, he called for a “quantum leap” to meet the UN’s goal of universal access by the end of the decade.

Originally published as Alice Springs community wins decades-long fight for access to clean drinking water