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AguaClara

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News

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and Updates

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Update from the Director

July 14, 2011
Good afternoon!

I hope that you are all having a great summer!

I've been meaning to write an update on AguaClara for some time and the accelerating pace of the AguaClara team has kept me fully occupied. Here are some highlights.

Gail Richardson has joined the AguaClara Advisory Council. She brings passion for Honduras, professional experience in public relations, and lives in NYC.

The AguaClara summer internship program at Cornell continues to grow. This summer the program doesn't offer credit or pay and has over 30 students and graduates participating. I am paying the incoming and outgoing design team leaders and an M.Eng. graduate who is designing an improved chemical doser. The program has Cornell institutional support and so it should be possible to continue offering this in future years. I am particularly pleased with the progress that we are making on our designs. Summer internships for a few student leaders have an incredible return on investment.

An M.S. student and an M.Eng. graduate are in Honduras supervising the design and construction of the first Stacked Rapid Sand Filter at the Tamara, Honduras AguaClara facility. The foundation for the 12 L/s Stacked Rapid Sand Filter is being poured right now and in the coming weeks the filter will be completed. Stacked Rapid Sand Filters have the potential to overcome the limitations of previous filtration technologies and to allow widespread adoption of the AguaClara technologies in countries where filtration is required by law for surface water supplies.

Jeff Will graduated with an M.Eng. in May and has a Fulbright Fellowship to work with APP in Honduras starting next week. This once again makes it possible for us to keep the APP-Cornell connection going without requiring a lot of funding. Sarah Long will be ending her AguaClara Engineer position with APP in December and Dan Smith will be ending his term in February of 2012.

Len Lion and I will be traveling to Honduras from August 1 - 8 to visit project sites, create a vision for the coming year, and meet with government officials and the Pan-american Agricultural University at Zamorano where they hope to build an AguaClara plant.

A Cornell MBA graduate from Colombia is pursuing the possibility of creating a new business that would become the AguaClara implementation partner in Colombia.
The Guatemalan government ministry that provides technical support to municipalities is planning to send a delegation to visit AguaClara facilities in Honduras next month.

We will be receiving $15,000 for one of the three proposals (Stacked Rapid Sand Filtration, Automated Design Tool, Foam Filtration) that we submitted to the EPA People/Planet/Prosperity competition last December. The proposal that EPA reviewers liked best was our proposal for point of use filtration using porous foam.

The AguaClara team in Honduras has a new (used) pickup truck enabling them to retire the Tayo to short trips (with gratitude to Ken Brown!). The additional vehicle has been greatly appreciated especially given the multiple AguaClara projects underway in Honduras this summer.

The Marcala plant upgrade to 55 L/s was completed a few months ago. That plant is serving 15,000 people and brings the total population served by AguaClara facilities to 25,000!
The Alauca plant construction is proceeding very rapidly. You can see photos of the construction on our Picassa site

Updates h5. Update from the Director July 14, 2011 Good afternoon! I hope that you are all having a great summer! I've been meaning to write an update on AguaClara for some time and the accelerating pace of the AguaClara team has kept me fully occupied. Here are some highlights. Gail Richardson has joined the AguaClara Advisory Council. She brings passion for Honduras, professional experience in public relations, and lives in NYC. The AguaClara summer internship program at Cornell continues to grow. This summer the program doesn't offer credit or pay and has over 30 students and graduates participating. I am paying the incoming and outgoing design team leaders and an M.Eng. graduate who is designing an improved chemical doser. The program has Cornell institutional support and so it should be possible to continue offering this in future years. I am particularly pleased with the progress that we are making on our designs. Summer internships for a few student leaders have an incredible return on investment. An M.S. student and an M.Eng. graduate are in Honduras supervising the design and construction of the first Stacked Rapid Sand Filter at the Tamara, Honduras AguaClara facility. The foundation for the 12 L/s Stacked Rapid Sand Filter is being poured right now and in the coming weeks the filter will be completed. Stacked Rapid Sand Filters have the potential to overcome the limitations of previous filtration technologies and to allow widespread adoption of the AguaClara technologies in countries where filtration is required by law for surface water supplies. Jeff Will graduated with an M.Eng. in May and has a Fulbright Fellowship to work with APP in Honduras starting next week. This once again makes it possible for us to keep the APP-Cornell connection going without requiring a lot of funding. Sarah Long will be ending her AguaClara Engineer position with APP in December and Dan Smith will be ending his term in February of 2012. Len Lion and I will be traveling to Honduras from August 1 - 8 to visit project sites, create a vision for the coming year, and meet with government officials and the Pan-american Agricultural University at Zamorano where they hope to build an AguaClara plant. A Cornell MBA graduate from Colombia is pursuing the possibility of creating a new business that would become the AguaClara implementation partner in Colombia. The Guatemalan government ministry that provides technical support to municipalities is planning to send a delegation to visit AguaClara facilities in Honduras next month. We will be receiving $15,000 for one of the three proposals (Stacked Rapid Sand Filtration, Automated Design Tool, Foam Filtration) that we submitted to the EPA People/Planet/Prosperity competition last December. The proposal that EPA reviewers liked best was our proposal for point of use filtration using porous foam. The AguaClara team in Honduras has a new (used) pickup truck enabling them to retire the Tayo to short trips (with gratitude to Ken Brown!). The additional vehicle has been greatly appreciated especially given the multiple AguaClara projects underway in Honduras this summer. The Marcala plant upgrade to 55 L/s was completed a few months ago. That plant is serving 15,000 people and brings the total population served by AguaClara facilities to 25,000! The Alauca plant construction is proceeding very rapidly. You can see photos of the construction on our Picassa site

(https://picasaweb.google.com/CUAguaClara/AlaucaProjectImage Added).


The

Atima

project

is

proceeding

through

the

pre-construction

phases.

It

has

Rotary

approval

and

it

is

expected

to

move

into

construction

soon.

The

Millennium

Water

Alliance,

MWA,

has

submitted

a

proposal

to

Nestle

for

a

shared

value

award

that

is

based

on

scaling

up

AguaClara

in

Honduras.

The

MWA

connection

has

a

lot

of

potential.

We

just

need

one

of

the

joint

proposals

to

be

funded!

Dan

Smith

has

been

submitting

multiple

proposals

with

APP

in

an

effort

to

increasing

funding

for

the

Honduras

side

of

the

AguaClara

program.

Cornell

and

College

of

Engineering

Development

offices

seem

to

have

a

new

openness

to

looking

for

funding

for

the

AguaClara

program.

Although

nothing

has

materialized

yet,

the

door

is

open

for

working

together.

There

are

conversations

about

meetings

with

previous

donors

and

I

am

hopeful

that

it

will

be

possible

to

increase

the

level

of

support

for

AguaClara

at

Cornell

so

that

we

can

continue

to

focus

on

Research,

Invent,

Design,

Empower!

Warmest

regards,

Monroe

Weber-Shirk

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h5. Press & Galleries
[Project Sites]
[Photos]
[Publications]
[Spotlight Profile]
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h5. AguaClara Engineering Trip to Honduras

Twenty-one Cornell students in the AguaClara program spent two weeks of their winter break traveling in Honduras and learning about the sustainability of various drinking water treatment technologies. The AguaClara team has developed a series of water treatment technologies that do not require any electricity and that are able to transform highly turbid surface waters into safe drinking water. The team at Cornell partners with Agua Para el Pueblo in Honduras to implement the Cornell technologies. While in Honduras they traveled over 1400 miles with many of those miles on dirt roads. The team visited five communities with AguaClara water treatment plants and two communities where AguaClara plants are on schedule to be constructed this year.

h5. Sedimentation Tank Hydraulics Team Develops Tank Design

The Sedimentation Tank Hydraulics team is working on designing a new tank that has optimal geometry for floc blanket formation. However, floc blanket is currently not part of existing AguaClara plants. In past years, the team was successful in forming floc blankets in labs but failed to form them in full size plants. They believe it is due to the geometry of current sedimentation tank design. Team leader Anna Lee says, "We are still working on designing the sedimentation tank. Our schematic drawing and the autocadd drawings of the model will be part of our first reflection report." To view the Sedimentation Tank Hydraulics reports visit the [team page|Sedimentation Tank Hydraulics].

h5. AguaClara's Spring Benefit Concert

The biannual benefit concert was a great success, thanks to the participation of local artists Alan Rose & the Restless Elements, Julianna Richer Daily, Larry Lin, and Pouria Pezeshkian! Special thanks to the Nines for hosting this event once again. For those that missed it, photos are available on AguaClara's Picasa page [here|https://picasaweb.google.com/CUAguaClara/RockForHondurasBenefitConcert#], and of course we encourage everyone to come out for the concert next semester.

h5. Volunteer Opportunities

AguaClara is currently taking local volunteers\! As of this semester, the team is open to individuals willing to help out with any aspect of the project. Teams are involved in a variety of tasks and range from Foam Filtration Research to the Design Team. Those without significant engineering experience are welcome to participate and learn more about AguaClara and the water filtration system. Additionally, they are welcome to participate on the Outreach Team which works to spread the word about AguaClara both locally and globally. Projects include updating the website, planning fundraising event, creating promotional materials, and contacting potential funding sources. Volunteer opportunities vary in length of time commitment and every participant will receive a certificate at the end of their commitment as verification of their contribution to AguaClara. Anyone interested can contact Rosa at rm497@cornell.edu.
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