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Design Blog Design Blog » Design for the Other 90% » Light Filters Water

Light Filters Water

A low cost UV water filter is making an impact in the field. Mexican non-profit Niparaja teamed with AquaStar and the local Technological Institute on the design of the low cost UV Bucket water filter. AquaStar/Meridian designed the 12V ballast that powers the UV lamp inside the UV Bucket, for use with solar panels in rural areas of Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The UV Bucket combines a 5 gallon (15 liter) bucket with a UV disinfection module. The user pours the water to be treated in an upper container, the water then flows under the UV lamp at a rate of 3 liters per minute and then falls into the 15 liter bucket where it is stored, purifying a full bucket of water in 5 minutes. Niparaja is fabricating and distributing 6,000 UV Buckets for 75-100% of the rural population in the state of Baja Sur. The rural school federation of Mexico is interested in 35,000 UV Buckets for every single rural school in Mexico. And the rural store chain DICONSA under the Mexican Ministry of Social Affairs in interested in selling UV Buckets in their 22,000 rural stores nationally.

About the Author: Cynthia E. Smith is the curator of Design for the Other 90% and manages travel exhibitions at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

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Comments

  1. Excellent idea! This is just the kind of innovative thinking that the world desperately needs now!

    Susan Bernat | Oct 25, 05:39 PM

  2. It’s great that Cooper-Hewitt has launched this exhibit. The appropriate technology produced is well worth seeing.
    By way of suggestion and criticism, there are a couple of things that might be improved. Given the number of people being introduced to these things for the first time, it has to be more user friendly. You can’t touch these objects, even though they are inexpensive, so you can’t see how they are actually used by people and communities. That’s a mistake.
    Moreover, you can’t really see how most of them are designed — strange for a museum of design. If they are so simple, why not display the process by which they were invented and constructed? Are these objects patented, or can they be imitated and built by others? We don’t know from the exhibit.
    Moreover, the exhibition catalog, not to mention the entrance fees, are exorbitantly expensive. Why not at least make available the names, addresses, and emails of the orgs. which have produced them? This would aid in spurring further inventions, and overall knowledge.
    finally, there is nothing about the political and economic contexts in which these objects are made and used. For instance, why can’t millions of the UV water filters be produced? What about the solar kitchen…do international orgs. like the World Bank encourage or discourage the diffusion of these devices, and what problems have been encountered? The exhibit could do much more, even though it is a good start.

    Raymond Seidelman | Oct 25, 05:40 PM

  3. Are these available in other parts of the world? Have the Aid societies taken up this idea?

    Ruth Stephenson | Oct 25, 05:40 PM

  4. The invention sounds a true alternative to the water sold by coca-cola in central Mexico, wich is ofensively expensive. Make sure the mexican officials don’t misuse your inventions. As a mexican, I advise you to make sure that they don’t steal the idea from you or profit for themselves, also, get other people involved in the distribution of the product, preferably non-profits like geenpeace-mexico, if you want, I’ll send you a list of many others. Remember DICONSA has historically been plagued by coruption.
    mariana

    mariana | Oct 25, 05:40 PM

  5. Thank you Raymond Seidelman. I was disappointed in the exhibit. I expected video, photography, sketch books, concepts explained. I couldn’t understand how most of these products work. How did they decide what language (phrases) to use on the instruments? How did the users feel about these products? Where do they get them? How did they know these resources were available, was it just handed to them? Is any of this detrimental to their culture and native customs? I wanted to see and learn about all of these things at the exhibit.

    As a recent graduate from design school I expect more from design professionals. Also, as someone who has made the trip to New Orleans I’ve seen the damage first hand. I think this exhibit was so much more important than the IDEO Selects and it was short changed.

    Simone | Oct 25, 05:41 PM

  6. The UV system as described seems a bit “gimmicky” to me: expensive, hard ot find replacement parts in remote developing countiries, and most importantly would likely not be very effective in turbid water ( (UV light does not filter, it disinfects…).

    I suggest you look at Solar Water Disinfection method promoted by the Swiss since 1991 (www.sodis.ch), and at a clever small sand filter for domestic use (www.cawst.org).

    Steve Metcalf | Oct 25, 05:41 PM