Many rapid developing countries suffer from severe lack of space. With the rise in urban slums springing up in towns, many metal framed shanties and cardboard houses which are inaccessible to the adequate basics electricity and water are cramped up close to each other. In the past one could survive on sunlight but with the scarce space, rays of sunlight can no longer pour their radiant glow but instead, the iron sheets and plastic based roofs block it.

The challenges of this particular aspect of urbanization has one main problem darkness. During the day, in these unorthodox settlements there?s no light so therefore the inhabitants are forced to spend money on lighting even during the day. Most methods of lighting involve the use of paraffin lamps, candles and torches. Some of these ways are quite dangerous and can lead to slum fires due to the lack of space planning and equipment to stop it.

In order to lower the average cost of energy used and aid the people in this situation, there has been a local home-made invention. The solar bottle bulb. This enables the inhabitants to have access to a source of light during the day.

The solar light bulb is a single soda bottle that is fully filled with a solution consisting of water mixed with bleach. It?s then pitched high in order to gain access to sunlight via a small hole drilled in the structure of the house. As we all know chlorine is poisonous and is used to sterilize water, in this case it ensures that no molds, bacteria or fungi grow inside the bottle. It has been proved to maintain the bulb for five years! It works by the simple concept of refraction as it crosses to a more optically dense medium from air and lights up the house.

It?s cheap! It costs approximately $2 to $3 dollars to make and lasts for five years! Even better, it doesn?t pose as a threat to the environment and no pollutants. Also it reduces the number of slum fires as there?s no chance of faulty electrical connections or falling of candles.

This innovation is being embraced in Manila, Philippines by MyShelter Foundation Inc. The governments has recognized this as a viable option and has even covered the expense of making them and has held several workshops to trains the locals regarding this matter.

Let?s light up our way to a green future.