Integrated Solar Photovoltaic and Water Purification Systems for Rural Tanzania: A Review of Technologies and Deployment Barriers

In rural Tanzania, unreliable electricity constrains decentralized water treatment. This review evaluates Photovoltaic (PV) powered ultraviolet (UV) disinfection and reverse osmosis/nanofiltration (RO/NF), chlorination, filtration and photocatalysis. A structured narrative search of one engineering database (ScienceDirect) and one academic search engine (Google Scholar) covered 2016–2026. The cited evidence base comprised 45 publications from 2016–2026, three earlier foundational sources and five institutional/report sources (53 sources total). Tanzanian Photovoltaic (PV) powered ultrafiltration–nanofiltration (UF–NF) field tests produced about 1,200 L per solar day at approximately 1.5 kWh/m³; auxiliary air bubbling could add about 0.8 kWh/m³. Tanzania receives about 4–7 kWh/m²/day of solar irradiation, but rainy-season cloud cover can reduce PV output when treatment demand may rise. Filtration plus chlorination is the most deployable near-term pathway. The proposed decision framework integrates source-water type, specific energy consumption (SEC), solar/grid reliability, operator capacity, supply chain and maintenance.