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The Arup Cause - Bringing Water to a Developing Community

Total cost to complete:
$10,000
Donations to date:
$0
Remaining funds needed:
$10,000
0.00% funded
Date needed by:
March 22, 2007

The Arup Cause - Bringing Water to a Developing Community: Paposo, Chile

This project is focused on analyzing the feasibility of bringing alternative water resources to the small coastal town of Paposo, Chile in order to facilitate economic development in the area and provide a safe and reliable water source. Currently the town has a population of about 300 and has no regular source of water. Because it is located in a very dry area, water is trucked in periodically from a bigger city 40 kilometers away and Paposo is dependent on this sole source of water. We are looking into fog collection, groundwater resources and desalinization approaches in order to provide Paposo with a self-sufficient source of water.

We hope that the development of water resources for this underdeveloped community will provide new economic opportunities, especially because the town's population has been diminishing in recent years due to better opportunities in neighboring cities. We will also evaluate the implications of implementing these various technologies in terms of political, social and economic impacts. This is an interesting project because it incorporates the analysis of an engineering system in combination with the human factors that are closely connected.

We are working closely with ARUP Consulting and believe that collaboration with industry provides us with an extensive breadth of knowledge and experience. Further, we have a contact from the University of Chile who can present an international perspective and give us further insight. Funding would go towards sending our student research team to Paposo in order to see first-hand the impacts that our project would have on the community. It would also go towards materials needed to build fog collectors and models that would help us evaluate the most efficient and practical solutions.

Additional info:

http://www.fogquest.org/

Project mission:

Our goal is to implement a safe and reliable source of water for the residents of Paposo in order to improve their quality of life and economic opportunities.

Required resources:

  1. Total project needs: $10,000
  2. In-kind contribution needs: Water quality testing supplies