Welcome to the AguaClara Wiki.

Mission Statement

AguaClara is a project in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University that is improving drinking water quality through [innovative] [research], knowledge transfer, Open Source Engineering and design of sustainable, replicable water treatment systems.

About AguaClara

AguaClara is a project in the school of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University that is improving drinking water quality through [innovative] [research], knowledge transfer, open source engineering and design of sustainable, replicable water treatment systems. The sustainability of the AguaClara technology is two fold, including physical and social sustainability.

The main goal of our project is the design and construction of water treatment plants in Honduras, but much thought also goes into 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 constructed one fully functioning water treatment plant in the town of Ojojona, Honduras. This plant is running and helping further AguaClara research for future plants via the data it returns. Currently, we are working on two projects. We are aiding the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) in retrofitting an existing water treatment plant with the AguaClara technology in the town of Marcala, Honduras and our second plant is in the final design stages with construction in Tamara, Honduras to begin in January.

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. Over this past summer, an operator training workshop was held to explain the technology to local plant operators. AguaClara values 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 (financially and physically) in building the plant, then the chances of the community sustaining the technology are much higher.

AguaClara partners with a local organization, Agua Para el Pueblo (APP); this organization 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 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 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 format, 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 should make the AguaClara technology more efficient and less expensive.

(Taken from abstract for the Engineers for Sustainable World Conference written by: Gemma Kite, Tania Quesada, Daniel Menendez, Alissa Diminich, and Tamar Sharabi)

Contribute to Our Project

Financial contributions can be made by sending checks to Cornell University with a note designating the funds for the AguaClara project.

Send checks to:

AguaClara
220 Hollister Hall
Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853
QUESTIONS? Contact our project advisor:
Monroe Weber-Shirk (Cornell University) Phone: (607) 255-8445

News

2007 In Review
[In the Press...]
The AguaClara team designed a water treatment plant for the town of Tamara, Honduras during the Fall of 2007. The foundation stone for the Tamara, Honduras water treatment plant was official set in concrete on January 13, 2008. The water treatment plant will serve 3500 people and will incorporate a long list of design improvements. The $70,000 project is being financed by a dozen Rotary Clubs with the Northeast Westchester and Somers Rotary Clubs taking the lead.

In December 2007 the AguaClara team completed the design of a water treatment plant for the town of Tamara Honduras with the goal of beginning construction in January 2008. The water treatment plant will serve 3500 people and will incorporate a long list of design improvements.

The AguaClara team is also providing design assistance for our partner, National Rural Water Association, as they retrofit a failed filter system in Marcala Honduras and convert it into an AguaClara water treatment plant. The Marcala plant will serve 10,000 people. The Marcala construction project is underway and is expected to finish in the late spring of 2008.

Through generous support from our [sponsors], we have two AguaClara Engineers Abroad, John Erickson and Carol Serna, who are on assignment in Honduras for a full year starting in August, 2007.

From January 4 to 20, 2008, 18 members of the AguaClara team traveled to Honduras to work on the water treatment project. Anne Ju, a reporter for the Cornell Chronicle spent one of those weeks in Honduras covering the successes of the project. Three of her articles on AguaClara have appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.

Student Teams

Spring 2008 Roster