The highlight of this week was definitely going to Encuentro. It is essentially used as an R&D for Cantaro Azul. They share the park with a camping sight and in exchange for using the space to test new water treatment systems, they supply clean water to the people using the park as well as the park ranger via a direct pipe to his house. I found it interesting that this might be one of the only houses in the town that has direct access to clean water. In addition to having the treatment system there, they study the river. It was interesting to learn that this is the same river that we saw near the sports complex that was brown and smelled like shit. While this water still isn’t safe to drink, at this point it is clear and odorless. The coolest part of this river at the “ojos del rio”. They don’t know where exactly this water comes from but it always flows into the river.
From visiting various organizations and seeing the products they have worked on over the last few weeks, the biggest thing I noticed was even if the device worked and met all the requirements, they had to make it as easy or convenient as possible to use. Otherwise, most people wouldn’t actually use the device on a consistent basis. For example, in the case of Cantaro Azul, when they were developing the initial product, it didn’t come with a designated table, meaning people would put it on an existing table in their house. This posed a problem because if they had to use the table for something else, they would put way the device and they might not bring it out for a few weeks. To go a few weeks without clean water when it could be so easily accessible is a huge problem. Because of this, they had to include the table with the device itself in order to make sure people actually use it. However, they still had people resistant to using the device since it didn’t fit aesthetically in their house. Because of this, they had to make a new model that hid most of the components under a sink. This all shows how people will use various reason not to try something new even if it could greatly improve their quality of life.
Sink Mezita Azul
In our discussions of safe water availability, I didn’t realize how many steps are needed in order to get to clean drinking water. In addition, all these steps need to be used together and in sequence to ensure a potable level. For example, the UV light wouldn’t be nearly as effective if there are still small particles floating in the water. They need to filter and remove everything in the right order for the water to actually be clean.