Anna Luísa Beserra Built a Solution That Makes Clean Drinking Water Accessible to Families Who Had No Reliable Way to Get It

Anna Luísa Beserra grew up in Salvador, in Brazil’s northeast, where limited infrastructure and a harsh climate shaped daily life. She studied biotechnology at the Federal University of Bahia, focusing on how science can meet basic needs rather than theoretical goals. When she was just fifteen, she engineered a solar water disinfection device called Aqualuz, designed for families relying on rainwater cisterns in semi-arid regions.

The idea was simple yet precise. Aqualuz uses sunlight to purify collected water safely and affordably. The device gave rural households a way to secure clean drinking water without depending on expensive infrastructure or unreliable municipal systems. It was an invention born from local experience and scientific reasoning, showing that technology could answer a real and immediate need.

Over time, Anna refined that prototype into a working model and built a social enterprise around it. Today she is the founder and CEO of Safe Drinking Water for All (SDW), a Brazilian company that designs affordable sanitation and water purification technologies for underserved communities. Her journey from young inventor to founder reflects not just talent but conviction, discipline, and a sense of duty to the people her work serves.

The Challenge Anna Chose to Solve

Large parts of Brazil still live without reliable access to safe water. In the semi-arid north, families store rainwater in domestic cisterns, but those containers often become breeding grounds for bacteria and parasites. Contaminated water is common, and treatment facilities are scarce.

Aqualuz was designed to close that gap. Using solar energy, the system disinfects stored water through a low-cost process that requires no electricity, chemicals, or filters that need frequent replacement. The design makes it particularly suited to rural households where resources are limited but sunlight is abundant.

Anna understood early that technology alone would not be enough. For SDW to succeed, it needed to work with people, not just for them. Her company designs systems that fit local habits and environmental conditions, building solutions for both domestic cisterns and larger community installations. The model also supports partner companies that want to invest in water and sanitation as part of their social programs.

What sets SDW apart is its attention to the long tail of implementation. The company trains communities in maintenance, collaborates with regional governments for deployment, and builds relationships with schools and local cooperatives. Each project is designed to last, not simply to impress.

Leading SDW with Science and Strategy

Anna leads SDW with the precision of a scientist and the pragmatism of a founder. Her leadership philosophy is based on participation and presence. She spends time in laboratories and in villages alike, bridging research with reality. That combination of technical rigor and empathy has earned her the trust of both the communities she serves and the institutions that fund her work.

Leading SDW with Science and Strategy: Anna approaches leadership through a balance of research and discipline. She invests in new technologies, strengthens internal systems, and maintains a close connection to her engineering roots. Her focus is not only on invention but on execution, ensuring that each idea translates into reliable performance in the field.

Hands-On Engagement and Field Insight: Her engagement goes far beyond the boardroom. Anna visits remote regions to meet the families who use Aqualuz and other SDW systems. She listens to their feedback and observes how the devices perform under real conditions. These visits provide insight into environmental challenges such as dust, water salinity, and heat that affect system efficiency. This constant feedback loop between users and engineers ensures that SDW’s technology evolves with genuine understanding.

Planning for Growth and Sustainable Expansion

From one prototype serving a handful of households, SDW has grown into a network providing solutions across Brazil and neighboring countries. The company now operates multiple technologies; each designed for a specific context. Anna plans to expand SDW’s reach by building partnerships with industries and municipalities that want to improve sanitation standards sustainably.

Yet her approach to scale remains cautious. She refuses to sacrifice reliability for growth. Operations must remain efficient, solutions must adapt to local contexts, and each new market must be entered with full understanding of its cultural and environmental realities. For Anna, expansion is not a sprint but a sequence of deliberate steps that hold together over time.

Can Low-Cost Sanitation Change the Status Quo?

The sanitation and water industry is dominated by large-scale infrastructure projects that require vast budgets and long timelines. Against that backdrop, SDW represents an alternative. The company’s low-cost, decentralized approach shows that effective sanitation does not always demand heavy capital or bureaucracy.

The question is whether such models can scale while preserving their integrity. Anna believes they can. She argues that innovation in water security must begin with affordability and accessibility, not with scale. Her company’s devices are designed for simplicity and endurance, ensuring they work under harsh sunlight, with limited technical maintenance, and within fragile supply chains.

SDW’s success depends as much on relationships as on technology. The company’s partnerships with municipal governments, rural cooperatives, and private companies enable it to reach isolated areas where large utilities seldom operate. Each collaboration is guided by the same principle: to create systems that local people can own, maintain, and trust.

Anna’s work also highlights the discipline required to run a purpose-driven business. She manages funding with care, builds a capable technical team, and measures progress by consistency rather than acclaim. Her leadership shows that reliability can be as powerful as invention.

Making Safe Water Reach Everyone

Anna Luísa Beserra stands out in the growing field of social entrepreneurship because her work never drifts into abstraction. She keeps her company close to the people who need it most. The foundation of her leadership lies in respect for local knowledge, environmental conditions, and the value of small but lasting change.

Her story also challenges the conventional image of innovation as disruption. Aqualuz did not emerge from a laboratory with vast resources but from a teenager’s observation of how her community lived. That same sense of grounded understanding continues to guide SDW’s evolution.

Through her work, Anna reminds us that technology becomes meaningful only when it endures. Safe drinking water is not a luxury or an engineering feat to be admired. It is a daily necessity. And in meeting that need with consistency and care, she has built not just a company but a framework for how science can truly serve society.

We have already benefited more than 38,000 people in 15 Brazilian states.