Introduction
Water is a necessity of life. Human beings can survive a maximum of 5 days without water, but only under good circumstances and if the person is healthy. Under certain circumstances, a person will not last longer than an hour. Throughout all of human history, the first priority a person has had is to ensure that they have a fresh, clean source of water. Most people you meet have a secure source, but what people often do not realize is that millions of other people do not have what they themselves take for granted. Poor citizens of countries where poverty, sanitation, and education are major issues do not have water pumped to their faucets and would probably have trouble grasping the idea that we have these amazing luxuries, and yet do not treasure them. GG, EK, and I have chosen to design and build a small, green-powered desalination unit that those without a secure source of water can use.
Water is a necessity of life. Human beings can survive a maximum of 5 days without water, but only under good circumstances and if the person is healthy. Under certain circumstances, a person will not last longer than an hour. Throughout all of human history, the first priority a person has had is to ensure that they have a fresh, clean source of water. Most people you meet have a secure source, but what people often do not realize is that millions of other people do not have what they themselves take for granted. Poor citizens of countries where poverty, sanitation, and education are major issues do not have water pumped to their faucets and would probably have trouble grasping the idea that we have these amazing luxuries, and yet do not treasure them. GG, EK, and I have chosen to design and build a small, green-powered desalination unit that those without a secure source of water can use.
Problem
We first discovered that Chile was having severe water issues when GG found this article. The article explains how much of Chile’s water is owned by the private sector. Water is not a public asset, and large companies fight over ownership of the water. Near a town named Quillagua, mining companies have bought the water rights, and the town’s source of water, a nearby river, is a tiny trickle for most of the year.
This article, written by Daniela Estrada, shows that while the people of Chile are trying to remedy this situation, large companies have a lot of power, and the Chilean public will find winning the rights to the water a hard task.
People in northern Chile near the Atacama Desert have an especially hard time. The Atacama Desert is one of the driest places in the world, rain does not often fall there, and any precipitation that does occur evaporates before the droplets reach the ground.
We first discovered that Chile was having severe water issues when GG found this article. The article explains how much of Chile’s water is owned by the private sector. Water is not a public asset, and large companies fight over ownership of the water. Near a town named Quillagua, mining companies have bought the water rights, and the town’s source of water, a nearby river, is a tiny trickle for most of the year.
This article, written by Daniela Estrada, shows that while the people of Chile are trying to remedy this situation, large companies have a lot of power, and the Chilean public will find winning the rights to the water a hard task.
People in northern Chile near the Atacama Desert have an especially hard time. The Atacama Desert is one of the driest places in the world, rain does not often fall there, and any precipitation that does occur evaporates before the droplets reach the ground.
Climate and Environment
The Atacama region is extremely dry and cloudless, making the area an optimum place for solar power. One of the biggest downfalls of solar power is that the sun is not always visible, due to passing clouds, dense cloud cover, or fog. Most of Chile experiences an effect called Rainshadow. This event happens when mountains block moisture-carrying winds, and the winds then deposit their moisture in order to rise above the mountains and continue. The leeward side of the mountain receives no moisture, often creating deserts or extremely dry regions. This lack of cloud cover gives solar panels full contact with the sun.The harsh conditions that Northern Chile experiences have convinced my team that the area is truly in need of water and that the situation needs to change. Hot and arid weather in the lowlands and occasional summer showers in the Andean highlands characterize Northern Chile. The area receives an average of only .01cm of rain per year; moreover, Chile is experiencing a drought, the second one in four years.
User Analysis
Our project is to build a product that will improve the lives of less fortunate people. The people that we are primarily designing our project for live in a harsh, arid location, and do not necessarily have access to potable water. The unit we have planned will allow these people to have fresh, clean water, and to be able to provide this clean water by themselves. The culture of the Atacama region has evolved from hardship, and the people who live there are stubborn self-respecting people who are proud that they live in such an inhospitable region. We are building this unit for a typical family of four; according to this article, a family uses only 30L to 40L of water per day for domestic consumption. When designing the unit, we need to be attentive, to the fact that the person using the unit may be a child, or may not have a proper education, and we need be sure to make sure that the unit is very easy to use.
Works Cited
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Gower , R. (2009, January 20). San pedro de atacama (chile) – like nowhere else on earth. Retrieved from http://www.roadlesstravelled.com.au/san-pedro-de-atacama-chile-like-nowhere-else-on-earth/
Rivers: a drying shame. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.arteriesinternational.com/newsarticle.asp?id=905
San pedro de atacama, chile - 20-22 april. (2008, May 19). Retrieved from http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Atacama/blog-277669.html
Where does water fit into your skincare?. (2011, July 08). Retrieved from http://www.love-yourself-naturally.com/?tag=water
Climate: When to go to chile. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.colonialvoyage.com/america/eng/south/chile/climate.html
Estrada, D. (2010, January 23). Water a matter of national security. Retrieved from http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50082
Barrionuevo, A. (2009, March 14). Chilean town withers in free market for water. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/world/americas/15chile.html
Chile - climate . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Chile-CLIMATE.html
Azzopardi, T. (2011, April 04). Chile’s drought dilemma. Retrieved from http://www.businesschile.cl/en/news/water/chile’s-drought-dilemma
Driest place: Atacama desert, chile. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.extremescience.com/driest.htm
Water consumption in africa. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://waterindustry.org/Water-Facts/africa-water.htm
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