Why is AguaClara at Cornell a program rather than a project?
Unlike a project, the AguaClara program has no ending date. The program includes multiple basic and applied research projects as well as an ongoing design team. The complexity of treating surface waters, the multiple processes that must be coupled, and the need to invent new systems that meet the criteria of sustainability provide the impetus for a long term program where extensive expertise can be acquired through multiple iterations of the innovation cycle. The scope, duration, and complex nature of the challenge we are working to solve qualifies AguaClara as a program rather than a project.
See our White Paper describing the AguaClara program at Cornell.
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The specific challenge of treating surface waters came up in a conversation with Jacobo Nunez Nuñez in January of 2004. He asked what we could do about the muddy water that they were piping to rural communities. By that time I had a Ph.D. in environmental engineering, but I realized that I still didn't know enough to answer Jacobo's question. I knew how to treat water in Ithaca surface waters in the United States and I realized that a different strategy would be required for communities in Honduras.
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