Aquapot: UF real applications for water potabilization in developing countries. Problems, location and solutions adopted

Lack of safe drinkable water is a serious problem that affects people in developing countries, conditioning health, social and economic development. AQUAPOT project, has researched and developed the use of membrane technology as an effectivemethod to obtain drinkable water fromsurface water in developing countries. AQUAPOT has also designed, built and installed a membrane-based facility. Placement and assembly of the designed potabilization plant, is done after the area recognition. The location study includes the identification of the main technical, cultural and social characteristics in the local situation. The place chosen to install the UF designed plant, is an urban area, with a population of around 1000 inhabitants, located in a mountain region of Ecuador, with no drinkable water and with a surface water supply from a reservoir, where just a settling is done. The analytical results of feed, permeate and concentrate samples from the last six months, conclude that the UF-facility designed works properly and allows to obtain drinkable water in the studied region.