Honduras, India, and Katerva

AguaClara received the Katerva Award for urban design earlier this year. Check out the video...

AguaClara has water treatment plant projects under construction in Honduras and in India. We seem to be going down the alphabet and so perhaps Indonesia is next. I traveled to India in June and catalyzed a conversation to switch to solar powered pumps instead of diesel and that led to a whole redesign of the village water treatment scheme. The water will be pumped from a large hand dug lowland well to water treatment facility that is on top of an elevated storage tank.

Water supply system for villages in India using a traditional hand dug well as the water source, solar power to pump the water, and an AguaClara treatment plant located on top of the elevated storage tank. 

Construction is underway for two village level schemes in Jharkhand, India. These plants are the first water treatment plants that use direct filtration with stacked rapid sand filters. They may also be the first water treatment plants to be built on top of an overhead tank!

At the end of my travels in India I visited the state of Punjab to give a presentation on AguaClara to engineers working for the Punjab Department of Water Supply and Sanitation.

They are considering switching from heavy metal contaminated groundwater to surface waters. They have experience with over 700 slow sand filters and are interested in learning about and potentially implementing the AguaClara water treatment option. The Punjab has 6168 villages that rely on tube wells and 1535 villages that rely on hand pumps and thus a switch to surface water sources will be a major investment.

The addition of the stacked rapid sand filter and floc blankets to the AguaClara suite of technologies means that the AguaClara technologies outperform conventional mechanized water treatment plants. Not only do we use less energy, cost less to build, cost less to operate, but we also produce the highest quality water. AguaClara will need to grow. That growth is already underway with AguaClara working on two continents.

There is only one stacked rapid sand filter on planet earth (at Tamara, Honduras) that is producing drinking water (there are several stacked rapid sand filters in our labs at Cornell). Now we have a competition between India and Honduras to see where on the planet the 2nd stacked rapid sand filter will be inaugurated. A fabricator in Ranchi, India is working hard to build six 0.8 L/s filters and in Honduras they are building two 16 L/s stacked rapid sand filters in San Nicolas, Santa Barbara.

The plant at San Nicolas will be the first water treatment plant to be designed with a stacked rapid sand filter. This will be the second stacked rapid sand filter to be constructed in Honduras. The San Nicolas plant is also the first water treatment plant to have an off center delivery of flocculated water into the sedimentation tank to improve the stability of the floc blankets. Floc blankets significantly improve the performance of water treatment plants and reduce the amount of coagulant that is needed. A 3rd innovation at San Nicolas will be a dual chemical dose controller that combines the controls for chlorination and coagulation.

Stay tuned for more updates on these projects to bring safe drinking water to more communities!

Opportunities with AguaClara LLC

AguaClara LLC is currently seeking an engineer able to immediately begin full-time (paid) work on our first project. We will be installing our low flow stacked rapid sand filters in 1-2 villages in India, and we need someone who is able to arrive in the state of Jharkhand to work full time in the month of May (Flexible arrival) through the end of July (possibility of extending stay).

Additionally we are seeking people full time (unpaid) interns in our central office in Washington, DC as soon as possible. These intern positions have the possibility of promotion to a full-time paid position. Both job announcements are below.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Company Overview

AguaClara LLC, closely affiliated with the AguaClara program at Cornell University, is a young social enterprise based in Washington, DC whose mission is to promote global health by designing and disseminating drinking water treatment solutions that are socially and economically sustainable in resource-poor communities. AguaClara provides engineering services that enable partners to implement long-lasting, high-performing technologies, while utilizing feedback to drive research and accelerate innovation.

AguaClara LLC has begun its first project in partnership with the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, the Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Institute, AguaClara@Cornell, and Indian NGO Pradan. We are immediately seeking a talented, flexible engineer to work in India to pilot the AguaClara Low Flow Stacked Rapid Sand Filtration (AC-LFSRSF) technology in two villages in the Khunti district of Jharkhand, India. Ideally, we are seeking highly-motivated self-starters who are willing to commit to the broader vision of growing our network of global partners and transition to business development efforts.

In addition, we are looking for interns who are committed to undertaking an exciting business development effort to lay the organizational groundwork for successful deployment of AguaClara technologies internationally. Interns who demonstrate successful integration into the team and high performance will have the opportunity to become full-time employees with AguaClara.

Start-up Summary

Current sources of funding

• Private loans
• Private donations
• Project Contract

Staff and Consultants

• 2 Principals working in project management and business development
• 1 Consultant providing design review and management

Position 1: Project Engineer

Reporting to and in partnership with the the Ranchi central office of Pradan, along with support from the AguaClara central office in Washington, DC, will collaborate on the overall project plans to pilot the AC-LFSRSF. Specific responsibilities include

• collaborating with Pradan on filtration design and fabrication
• providing appropriate specifications for the overall system design (pumps, building requirements)
• developing training for local technicians to enable them to service, troubleshoot, operate, and train community operators
• installing the filter and troubleshoot as needed in the early months of implementation
• monitoring filter performance, and respond to failures
• attendance at village-level, government-level, or funder meetings as necessary
• provide quality assurance over the course of construction as necessary
• documenting progress through biweekly written reports
• contribution to a final project evaluation document

The project time frame is from April 1 - July 26. A highly-motivated self-starter with interest in extending stay to carry out program building in-country and contributing to overall business development is preferred.

Qualifications

• BS in engineering (required) or demonstrated experience with water treatment technology, M. Eng or M.S a plus
• Commitment to the overall mission of the company
• Ability to work in a highly-energized, dynamic start-up environment
• Ability to plan and manage projects and build countrywide programs in a dynamic international environments
• Flexible, creative, and willing to learn
• Willingness to travel and be stationed abroad for several months at a time
• Experience in development a plus
• Demonstrated excellence in organizational, managerial, and communication skills

To Apply: Send resume and cover letter to May Sharif at msharif@aguaclara.cc.

Position 2: Business Developers

This is a volunteer position, with the possibility of promotion to a full time paid position as funds become available. We are looking for creative organizers, planners, and managers with the skills to help build a program from the ground up. We are seeking people with the following skills and experience

• organization and management of teams
• leading multimedia marketing efforts targeting many audiences internationally and domestically
• leading large scale (million-dollar) fundraising efforts
• excellent oral, written, and visual communication
• network and form strategic relationships with potential partners, funders, and water sector agencies
• Financial, accounting experience

Individuals with technical backgrounds and the willingness to transition to project-based engineering planning and management work preferred.

Qualifications

• BS (required), M.Eng, M.S. or MBA (a plus)
• demonstrated experience management and business development
• Commitment to the overall mission of the company
• Ability to work in a highly-energized, dynamic start-up environment
• Ability to plan and manage projects and build countrywide programs in a dynamic international environments
• Flexible, creative, and willing to learn
• Willingness to travel and be stationed abroad for several months at a time
• Experience in development a plus
• Demonstrated excellence in organizational, managerial, and communication skills

To Apply: Send resume and cover letter to Sarah Long at slong@aguaclara.cc.

AguaClara goes to India

AguaClara goes to India

I’m on my way home after an amazing week in India. My goal for the trip was to find the overlap between what AguaClara can provide and what could be taken to scale in India. The Cornell network had created connections before the trip that include PRADAN, an Indian NGO, the Tata Trust, a funding source for development work in India, and TACO-AN, the Tata-Cornell program for Agriculture and Nutrition. 

Finding the overlap required some creative exploration. PRADAN works with Indian villages that have fewer than 1000 people. AguaClara has experience with towns with populations between 1500 and 15,000. The Indian villages in Jharkhand use hand pumps. The terrain is gently rolling with few perennial surface water sources available and topography that makes gravity powered water supply systems almost impossible. 

There is strong interest in switching from hand pumps to distribution systems with water on tap at each household. The Indian government is installing deep borehole wells with an electric submersible pump, elevated storage tank, solar panel on top of the tank, and distribution systems. The deep borehole wells have a significant risk of not having sufficient water and failure of the pumping system leaves the village without any way to get water from the well.

PRADAN has piloted a very different approach. They identify a lowland location with a large contributing watershed that the villagers can modify to improve water infiltration and raise the water table during the monsoon. They dig a well that is more than 7 m in diameter and about 10 m deep. The well is lined with cut stones that are laid like bricks without mortar. Gravel is placed on the outside of the stone lining to reduce soil infiltration. PRADAN uses a diesel powered pump to lift water from a covered lowland well to an elevated storage tank. These wells are similar to traditional wells and they can be used for irrigation, watering livestock, as well as for domestic water supply.

The lowland wells are effectively a high quality surface water source. Some of the water entering the wells takes a short path from the ground near the well. That short path means that soil particles don’t have adequate opportunity to be filtered from the water. The US EPA would classify these wells as ground water under the influence of surface water and they would require filtration for use as a drinking water source. We measured the turbidity of one of the lowland wells and found 4 NTU. That would meet the Indian standard of 5 NTU. The turbidity must increase somewhat during the rainy season, but the reports are that the water is clear except perhaps for some brief periods after heavy rains.

We traveled to a number of sites near Ranchi, Jharkhand in northeast India. It quickly became clear that finding the connection between AguaClara and Jharkhand villages was going to require some creative thinking. The lowland wells offered cleaner water that could be much closer to the villages than surface water sources. The lowland wells would require filtration and disinfection to provide safe drinking water. The relatively high quality water suggested that flocculation and sedimentation wouldn’t be needed. We had a number of long discussions at the PRADAN offices in Ranchi and together we came up with a new strategy for village water supply systems that couples the PRADAN approach of using the lowland wells with AguaClara’s low flow stacked rapid sand filter and chemical dose controller for a coagulant and chlorine. 

The proposed system will use a low head pump to lift water from the well to a small building that will house two pumps, doser, filter, and a small filtered water storage tank. The second pump will be used to lift water from the filtered water storage tank to an overhead storage tank and then to the distribution system.

Everyone was enthusiastic about this new model for providing safe drinking water. It could be widely replicated, is economical, and would give villagers access to high quality water for all of their household needs. The well could also be used for small scale irrigation to grow vegetables as is already being done in several of the villages where PRADAN has been working. And if any component of the system fails, unlike deep boreholes, the villagers can still access water in the well using a bucket on a rope.

PRADAN has a strong network of villages with self-help groups and thus it was easy to identify several good candidates for pilot projects including one that already has a lowland well. With PRADAN and AguaClara finding plenty of common ground including a shared philosophy, the next step was to begin writing a proposal to Tata Trust and then meet with representatives of the Tata Trust in Mumbai. The meeting in Mumbai went very well with excellent questions and quick connections to the many opportunities for AguaClara in India.

The India team of TACO-AN, Tata Trust, PRADAN, AguaClara LLC, and AguaClara@Cornell share a goal of having the first system fully operational by the time the rains begin around June 15 of 2013. That means we need to swing into action immediately and get a team on the ground in Jharkhand by the end of March. And as we take these next steps, may we remember that there are 600,000 villages in India and most of them don’t have safe drinking water on tap. The government of India is investing heavily in improving infrastructure at the village level and thus scaling up will go rapidly if we can demonstrate a viable model. It is time to begin a new RIDE (Research/Invent/Design/Empower). 

Spring 2013 Updates

Here are some updates since the AguaClara team returned from our journey to Honduras this January:

• AguaClara was recently given the honor of winning the Urban Design category for the Katerva Awards, a competition organized by a non-profit that recognizes and supports global sustainability efforts. Read the Forbes magazine article in which AguaClara was featured as a result of being chosen for the Urban Design category!
• As the Spring semester kicks into gear, research in the AguaClara lab has commenced! Here a few photos of lab stations that have been set up: 

Taking measurements for the Sedimentation Tank Hydraulics team

The Floc-Sed Optimization team checks on their flocculator setup