Page History

AguaClara and Sustainability

Introduction

...

The AguaClara team at Cornell University is conducting basic conducts laboratory research to create robust technologies for drinking water treatment that will be both ecologically and economically sustainable. The AguaClara program applies an economy-of-scale to community development by incorporating the algorithms derived empirically in our labs into a free, downloadable free design tool that allows users to receive customized plant designs from our servers at zero marginal cost to either of us. The plants we design are gravity-powered and appropriate for both resource-poor communities and for forward-thinking communities everywhere.

...

Section

Column We have been unable to find any databases that have sufficient detail to characterize the global demand for the AguaClara technology. We can create a very rough estimate based on a few assumptions. The demand for robust, energy efficient, water treatment technology is based on a combination of the large unmet demand for safe drinking water, the increased demand due to population growth and urbanization, and the need to replace aging infrastructure. A conservative estimate of the unmet demand for safe drinking water is that globally, 884 million people are currently without access to improved water supply and an additional number of those with improved water supply do not have access to safe water. Improved water is defined by the World Health Organization as household connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collections. Unimproved water sources are unprotected springs, unprotected wells, vendor-provided water, tanker truck-provided water, and bottled water. Inclusion of household connections in the list of improved water sources without regard for the source of that water has led to a gross overestimation of the number of people who have access to safe water. Given these definitions, untreated surface waters that are piped to homes count as an improved water supply and thus are classified as safe for the purposes of the millennium development goals. To create a very rough estimate of the global demand for the AguaClara technology, we make the following assumptions: 2 billion people lack access to safe water. 25% live in communities between 1000 and 50,000 (as is the case in Honduras). 25% of communities use surface water sources. Thus 125 million people need AguaClara water treatment plants. If we further assume that our goal is to meet this demand in 10 years and that there are an average of 12,000 people per water treatment plant, we obtain an estimate of 1000 plants per year! This estimate does not include population growth or the need to replace aging infrastructure. Column width 350px Image Modified View of the water source used by 5400 people in the town of Moroceli, Honduras. This water may be occasionally chlorinated, but chlorine does not make turbid water safe. In Honduras over 25% of the population live in towns with populations between 1000 and 50,000. Most of these communities use untreated surface water sources that are often extremely turbid during the rainy season. These water sources as classified as improved by the World Health Organization.