Frequently Asked Questions:

Project

1. Who operates and maintains the plants?
2. Do all the people in the community know where they are getting their water?
3. What are the sources of water for the plant?
4. Why Honduras and not another country?
5. Where can I learn more about AguaClara?
6. How can I get involved?

Costs

1. What are the costs associated with building each plant? 
2. Where does the money come from?

Technology

1. What makes a flocculator better than other water treatment methods that are available or could be made available in Honduras?
2. How big is the plant?
3. Can the AguaClara technology be used if there aren't mountains?
4. Is the water leaving the demo plant safe to drink?
5. How long is the chlorine in contact with the water until people drink it?
6. What is flocculation?
7. Why is filtration not used/not necessary?
8. How clean is the water that leaves?
9. How do you get rid of the sediment that settles out in the sedimentation tank?
10. Do you have to turn off the plant to do it?
11. Can you have too much aluminum sulfate used in the plant? How about Chlorine?

Alum

1. How does alum work as a coagulant?
   Answer: The particles in water have slight negative charges, which causes them to repel each other and not form larger particles. When AlSO4 is added to water it forms an AL(OH)3 precipitate, which has a slight positive charge. The AL(OH)3 collides with the negatively charged particles in the water and neutralizes the charge.
2. Is aluminum sulfate harmful to humans? Animals?
3. Is there aluminum sulfate in the water leaving the demo plant / other AguaClara plants?
4. Does treatment with aluminum sulfate do anything about microbes or other disease carrying agents?

Clean water

1. How do AguaClara plants remove disease carrying agents from the water supply
2. Aside from clay, what other things do AguaClara's water treatment plants remove from the water?
3. How do AguaClara plants remove disease carrying agents from the water supply?
4. How long is the chlorine in contact with the water until people drink it?
5. What is turbidity?
6. How turbid can the water be entering the plant, for it still to be clean when it leaves?