Mohammed Farouk Ali

An Egyptian engineer who invented low-cost water filtration systems in the 1960s.

Mohammed Farouk Ali (1925–2010) revolutionized public health in arid regions through his Desert Filter technology. Working in Egypt's Nile Delta, he observed that 80% of rural households lacked clean drinking water. His 1964 patent for a sand-and-copper sulfate filtration system reduced waterborne diseases by 67% in trial villages. The Ali Filter used locally available materials, costing just $2 per unit - a fraction of imported systems. By 1970, over 500,000 units operated in Egypt's villages, a model later adopted in Yemen and Sudan. His 1972 book 《Water for the Desert》 inspired UNICEF's global water sanitation programs. Though overshadowed by Western technologies, Ali's designs remain in use today in off-grid communities. Engineers now call his approach the 'gold standard' for low-tech solutions, with MIT's Farouk Ali Tribute Project studying his methods for climate resilience.