Engineering Clean Water: Pure Water Project

Abstract

After earthquakes devastated Haiti in 2010, a team of Embry-Riddle students and faculty built and installed a solar-powered water purifier to improve both the environmental and human health concerns created by the lack of infrastructure, clean water, and sanitation. Since then, the group Pure Water Project has installed 10 water purifiers in orphanages, clinics, schools, and community centers in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The group relies on its partner selection criteria and local contacts to determine the best locations for the purifiers. Once determined, teams of students (Mechanical, Electrical, and WASH) construct the purifiers in ERAU’s Energy Systems Laboratory. In May, Pure Water Project students and faculty installed the purifier to accomplish the group’s overall goal: to use engineering principles to provide clean water to areas in need. A final component of the project is to launch a micro-business on-site. The local operators are empowered with ongoing maintenance and operation of the system, as well as the micro-business operations