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The fresh water requirement is tremendously increasing in the present society with all kinds of industrial and factory growth leading to more and more pollution of natural resources. On the other hand, there are many arid and desert regions in the world where there are less frequent rainfalls and ground water shortage. Most of the water bodies like rivers, lakes and so forth throughout the world are saline and brackish which are not suitable for domestic, irrigation and especially for drinking purposes. Solar desalination is proven to be eco-friendly and economical way of producing the fresh water to cater to the needs of rural population. Much research has already been done in the field of single effect passive and active solar stills which produces low quantity of fresh water. In recent years, attention has been focused on developing multi-effect solar stills coupling with flat plate and concentrating collectors in order to overcome the drawback of single effect stills. In the present study, a detailed review of all the solar stills both single and multi-effect type with passive and active configuration is presented. The present study aims at describing the design specifications and highlighting the merits and demerits of various solar stills upon which research has been done till recent past. Also a discussion on future scope is given with some recommendations in the field of solar stills improvement to economically produce sustainable potable water. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.