Solar distillation is a potential approach for providing clean water to rural populations. It is not widely utilised or commercialised due to the reduced output of water distilled in a passive solar still. To address this issue, a number of active approaches have been created. At IIT Delhi, New Delhi, a newly designed solar still with an evacuated tube collector (active solar still) and a waste heat driven solar still were modelled, built, and tested for comparison reasons. It has been found that maximum daily distilled water production of 6.6 and 5.74 L/m²/day obtained from waste heat and evacuated tube collector integrated solar stills, respectively, It was also observed that ETC and waste heat operated solar still had payback periods of 216 and 195.5 days, respectively.