About AguaClara
AguaClara is a project in the school of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University that is improving drinking water quality through innovation, research, knowledge transfer, open source engineering, and design of sustainable, replicable water treatment systems.
The main goal of our project is the design and construction of water treatment plants with careful consideration of the implementation and integration of these plants into the communities in which they are built. This integration and implementation can be split up into two major categories of knowledge transfer and local sustainability.
Thus far, we have designed and consulted on the construction of four fully functioning water treatment plants in the towns of La 34, Ojojona, Marcala, and Tamara, all in Honduras. The plant in Marcala was designed to retrofit a pre-existing plant in a project lead by the National Rural Water Association (NRWA). All four of the AguaClara plants are running and helping further AguaClara research for future plants via the data returned. Currently we are working on projects in Cuatro Comunidades and Agalteca while also determining the next communities to work with.
Beyond the physical design and construction of water treatment plants, the AguaClara project also focuses on knowledge transfer. This allows the receiving communities to be self sufficient and sustainable in plant maintenance and operation. Our plants are built with local labor, with attention paid to educating plant operators and other local people about the technology. During some summers operator training workshops are held to explain the technology to local plant operators. AguaClara places education as the most valuable element of a successful development project. If the community understands the importance of clean water, the operators understand how the use the technology, and the community takes part (contributing labor and local materials) in building the plant, then the chances of the community sustaining the technology are much greater.
AguaClara partners with a local organization, Agua Para el Pueblo (APP); this regional partner aids in site selection, construction and organization in Honduras. It is these local connections and knowledge sharing that makes our technology socially sustainable. Currently, APP is working to select the next candidate communities to receive an AguaClara water treatment plant.
The research done at Cornell University on water treatment processes, especially on flocculation, is the foundation for the design of the plants we have built. Our water treatment plants are designed to be clever, simple and affordable. Our plants are gravity powered and made almost completely out of local materials. The design algorithms are structured to be scalable and replicable. These two factors combined with very simple designs make our plants physically sustainable.
The next push for our project is to make our algorithms open source. We are working on the MathCAD and AutoCAD code necessary to create an internet interface such that anyone wanting to use the AguaClara design can input basic parameters about their town and the program will return a complete plant design.
As we move forward in our research we are testing variations of our existing flocculation model, including the relationship between velocity gradients and fluid mixing and floc formation, that will make the AguaClara technology more efficient and less expensive. We are also researching ways to design sedimentation and chemical dosing systems to improve the efficiency of plant operation. A complete list of research projects can be found at the research page.