AguaClara LLC has a different way for communities to get safe water on tap.
The system is simple, intuitive, and easy to maintain, and operators don't have to worry about a gearbox of moving parts to repair or replace when something goes wrong. Make everything from local materials, throw in gravity as the power source, and you get what we think is the most resilient, affordable treatment technology in the world.
That's the AguaClara LLC Difference.
How does it work?
We design systems for both high- and low-turbidity situations. "Turbidity" is the cloudiness or murkiness of water that you can see with the naked eye, and it indicates the level of particulates in that water. The World Health Organization has established the standard for safe drinking water at 1 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units) or less.
In a high-turbidity context - where raw water is coming in at up to 1000 NTU - we design full-scale plants for towns with 250-3000 households that purifies water through a 5-step treatment train:
In a low-turbidity context - where raw water is coming in at up to 50 NTU - we scale down the plant to one that serves villages of 30-250 households that purifies water through a 3-step treatment train (coagulation-stacked rapid sand filtration-disinfection):
Outside the low-turbidity AguaClara overhead tank plant in Gufu, India. Solar pumps are used to propel water to the entrance tank at the top.
At work inside the overhead tank plant in Gufu.
Both of the above methods reliably treat water to levels of 0.3 NTU or less.
What else should I know?
Keep in mind that our treatment process is not so unusual when compared to standard treatment plants. What sets us apart is our sheer simplicity: simple materials, simple to operate, simple to power. The only time we use anything other than gravity to power the process is when we utilize solar pumps to drive water from underground wells to the entrance tank of the treatment plant. And we aren't satisfied with that workaround -- sunlight can be inconsistent and unreliable, which means our communities are left with spotty service on cloudy days. We excel when working with surface water, but we are still innovating our approach to groundwater.
You might also be wondering, what happens to the waste? For now, the particles that get removed from the raw water drain out into sludge ponds located safely far away from the community. While this is another standard technique used in the water treatment sector, we are not satisfied with loose ends in the system. Wastewater management is not our specialty, but we are seeking innovative partners as well as our own methods to create a closed loop, e.g., one where the sludge can be composted and reused in the form of fertilizer!
Finally, we've talked about treating turbidity, but what about issues like heavy metal contamination? That is indeed a big problem, and we are working hard address it. Laboratory studies show that we can remove arsenic using a coagulant and a sand filter. Current research is aimed at reducing costs and improving performance. We aren't yet ready to pilot arsenic removal technologies in the field, but we're getting there.