Deep in the jungles of the Yucatan peninsula, residents of the remote Mexican village of La Mancalona are producing clean drinking water using the power of the sun.
For nearly two years now, members of the community, most of whom are subsistence farmers, have operated and maintained a solar-powered water purification system engineered by researchers at MIT.
The system consists of two solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity; these, in turn, power a set of pumps that push water through semiporous membranes in a filtration process called reverse osmosis. The setup purifies both brackish well water and collected rainwater, producing about 1,000 liters of purified water a day for the 450 residents.
Deep in the jungles of the Yucatan peninsula, residents of the remote Mexican village of La Mancalona are producing clean drinking water using the power of the sun.
For nearly two years now, members of the community, most of whom are subsistence farmers, have operated and maintained a solar-powered water purification system engineered by researchers at MIT.
The system consists of two solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity; these, in turn, power a set of pumps that push water through semiporous membranes in a filtration process called reverse osmosis. The setup purifies both brackish well water and collected rainwater, producing about 1,000 liters of purified water a day for the 450 residents.
The MIT team had previously demonstrated the technology’s feasibility in the lab and in the field. Now, in a study published in the journal Desalination, they report that residents of La Mancalona have successfully run the solar-powered system, having been trained by MIT researchers to operate and maintain the system. The villagers are paying the community operators for their drinking water at a price they can afford, and one that makes the system self-sustainable.
Steven Dubowsky, a professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at MIT, says the case study in La Mancalona demonstrates that with careful design and proper training, non-expert communities can independently operate high-tech systems.
Photo shows a village resident drinks purified water from the system's clean water tank. Credit: Leah Kelley
Read more at MIT News.
