What is the name of your organization?
BeyondBlue
What is the name of your solution?
SoLED
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
UV-LED Water Disinfection Device for Remote Areas
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
United States
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
We are addressing the lack of access to clean and safe water in healthcare facilities—especially last-mile clinics—in rural and off-grid communities. Globally, over two billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water, and nearly 60% of healthcare centers in sub-Saharan Africa operate without essential water services (WHO/UNICEF, 2021; 2023). Many clinics rely on microbiologically contaminated sources in communities where we plan to work, putting patients and healthcare workers at risk. Clinics cannot safely perform basic procedures, sterilize equipment, or prevent infections. Waterborne diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, and diarrhea, which cause over 1.5 million deaths annually, mainly in children under five (WHO, 2023; UNICEF, 2023), continue to thrive. In maternity wards, the absence of clean water drastically increases sepsis risk and newborn mortality (WHO, 2019). Existing disinfection methods fall short. Chlorine, where available, is typically used for surface cleaning rather than water treatment due to supply issues, maintenance demands, unpleasant taste or odor, and the need for skilled dosing. Advanced technologies as reverse osmosis (RO) or mercury-based ultraviolet (UV) systems, require high energy, are costly, and often fail in remote settings. These gaps leave last-mile clinics without sustainable water treatment solutions, deepening global health inequalities
What is your solution?
SoLED is a smart, solar-powered water disinfection system designed for clinics and communities for long-term operation in off-grid, low-resource settings. It uses patented multispectral UV-LED technology (EP3583072) that is integrated into commercial LED reactors to allow the efficient elimination of bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and other water pathogens—without chemicals, complex maintenance, or grid electricity. Each plug-and-play unit is energy-efficient and built for long-term use in low-resource settings. SoLED's combination of multispectral UV-LED disinfection and smart data monitoring makes it unique. Our IoT devices are connected to the cloud via mobile networks, sending real-time data on water quality, usage, flow rate, water consumption, LED light parameters, and system health. We also incorporate mobile-based community surveys and external datasets, such as weather conditions, contamination trends, and public health alerts, feeding into a cloud-based AI engine. This engine powers a proactive water safety system that predicts failures and maintenance needs, flags contamination risks and underperformance, and optimizes energy use and disinfection levels. As the network grows, the system learns and adapts, where insights from one location improve outcomes across all others, creating a network effect that increases resilience and health equity where it’s needed most, often not possible with existing solutions.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
SoLED plans in the current proposal to serve rural communities in Uganda, particularly patients, healthcare workers, women, and children. However, our solution, once scaled up, can support clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Clinics - which provide only preventive services - make up 23% of all health facilities in Uganda (Ministry of Health, Uganda, 2018). Children under five and immunocompromised individuals are especially vulnerable to waterborne diseases, such as diarrhea, which claims the lives of 33 children every day in Uganda. SoLED directly improves health outcomes by providing reliable, chemical-free, UV-LED disinfection for critical services, especially in maternal and child health services. Healthcare workers can operate in safer, more sanitary conditions, improving care quality and trust in local systems. At the broader level, SoLED empowers NGOs, governments, and water authorities with a scalable platform for managing water safety in clinics, schools, and communities, with real-time data, remote diagnostics, and AI-powered predictive insights to help partners monitor infrastructure, plan maintenance, and respond to risks before systems fail. By addressing the root cause of poor health facility performance—lack of safe water—SoLED strengthens health system resilience, capacity, and equity of local health systems in the places that need it most.
