Currently writing this from the airport in Tuxtla Gutierrez where I get to wait for the next 10 hours! While waiting, I’m able to reflect about how I am so grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of this program. Coming to Mexico and learning about the lack of access to safe drinking water really brought the whole experience alive for me. It was interesting to see what is being done in the community to allow people access to clean drinking water. However, I think one of my biggest takeaways is that engineering projects need to go through iterations of the design process and take feedback from their target audience. This was seen in Cantaro Azul, when they talked about the adjustments they made to their Mesita Azul. They had observed how their users interacted with their device, and made adjustments accordingly.
SODIS testing!
SODIS results!
Work session at our favorite cafe, Amor Negro
good bye to my new friends (this was a bonding night for us)
bye to the lovely villa
This week we focused a lot on water treatments and testing. It was interesting to actually test the treatments that we’ve been learning about in class. Although some of the methods we tried—like solar disinfection (SODIS)—can be effective in the 500 mL bottles that we used, it is unrealistic to scale it up to the amount of water that is needed for a person daily. Other methods that we tried—like coagulation/flocculation with Moringa oleifera seeds—straight up did not work. Although Moringa seeds are known as a natural coagulant, it proved to be not effective at decreasing the turbidity of the water. This makes it not a great option for people in communities like San Cris to use for water treatment.
cheers to iSEED Mexico
I am proud of the work that we have accomplished on this trip, and it has given me a lot to think about. Happy to have made these new friends that I quite literally met a month ago in a hostel in Mexico City!