Research project

    Design and practice Abstract Water and waste The research project team was assigned the goal of creating a product which will help the Peruvian people of Lobitos and Piedritas. The team decided that the problem of waste and water is the task that we are going to accomplish. The team has thought of using and integrating various renewable technologies with a system to separate and purify various contaminated liquids which will assist in reducing the various effects these chemicals cause on the marine life and environment. Another goal of the team was to reduce the effect of these chemicals that have on the human population. The team have decided to use UV lights to achieve this by killing off the harmful bacteria and substances which will guaranteed no sicknesses from the untreated water as well as can be used to consume the various substances to power the UV lamp during filtration and any substances left can then be recycled to help Lobitos and Piedritas create products to help their daily lives. Executive summary In the cities of Lobitos and Piedritas lives a devastating problem of water and waste. The ground waters have high concentrations of chlorides, sulphates, and some metals such as mercury (which if consumed could harm one’s health or worse case kill you from chemical poisoning). The situation is gets worse to a point where the villagers cannot drink water straight out of the tap without boiling it first. There are large build ups of waste on the beach and in the sea, which severely impacts the marine creatures and birds which hunt to survive from the sea. Due to the pollution it not only damages the environment but makes consumption for the marine life impossible as they will have dead because the chemical and metalpoisoning which would equally hurt someone’s health or worse kill someone.Due to these threatening conditions the team has decided to heavily focus on these issues. The team have designed a water sterilization method that can eliminate 99.9% of the bacteria/ microorganism’s present. This can be done by passing water through a source of UV light, using this method it ensures there are no traces of bacteria, virus’ and other microorganism that are harmful, present after sterilization of water as well as allharmful chemicals and metals present will be filtered out. The way this method is designed requires the UV light process to be the final stage in the machine because if the water is extremely turbid, the UV light will not be able to pass through to work properly. Therefore, the team have placed a filter with charcoal (in granular form) to be at the first stage which filter the minerals, chemicals, and metals before passing the water through electrodes that attract the metals in the water as well. Then finally UV light disinfects the water of various harmful microorganism to humans. The water flow rate would have to be specific for the UV light to work effectively. This can be done by using a water flow regulator and pump to control these various variables.       Evaluation criteria Weight % Ideas Idea 1 (UV purification system pump) 2 (palm tree water purification system) 3 (Net catching plastics/metal) 4 (Hydroelectric filtration system) Rating Weighted total Rating Weighted total Rating Weighted total Rating Weighted total Ease of manufacturing 20% 3 60 3 60 5 100 2 40 Economical price 20% 5 100 5 100 5 100 4 80 Environmentally friendly 15% 5 75 5 75 5 75 5 75 Durability 10% 4 40 3 30 2 20 3 30 Ease of use 15% 4 60 4 60 5 75 4 60 Does it help with water shortages 10% 5 50 4 40 1 10 4 40 Does it help of accumulation of waste 10% 5 50 4 40 3 30 3 30 Total Score 435 405 410 355 Rank 1 3 2 4 Continue? Yes No No No Ratings from 1-5. 1= terrible 2= bad 3= okay 4= brilliant 5= fantastic Weighted total is out of a 100% Times rating by weight to get total score Introduction The team have done various research on the towns of Piedritas and Lobitos and have concluded after a long discussion that the town suffers from a shortage of drinkable water which is needed in a variety of processes and staying healthy and hydrated. To combat this huge problem which is a massive concern the team concluded that the product needed to be easily made and maintained which can be affordable and easily replaced. The product's main function is to separate the contaminated liquid into water and various other chemicals and wastage. These chemicals can be reused and recycled to create various products which can be sold for extra cash; by reusing the chemicals it can be used to stabilize the environment and economy by recycling and separating it from the habitat of the marine creatures which destroys the natural beauty and territory of the sea creatures. Problem definition The Peruvian people in Lobitos and Piedritas face problems such as accessing clean water and waste disposal. According to Loris, 2012, a significant population in Peru have no access to clean water with more than 1.5 million people having no running water in their houses. The water that is delivered in Peru is also non-potable and unsanitary (Tegel). The goal of the team is to create a solution to the problems faced by the people. This problem majorly effects the various people who live in Lobitos and Piedritas the reason for this is that water is needed to stay hydrated, cook and clean various items and maintain health with a limited amount of water available this makes it harder to live in hot and humid environments such as Lobitos and Piedritas. Therefore, the team decided to solve these problems by creating a product which uses a system that separates the contaminated liquid into water, chemicals, and waste so that it can be reused for other products/sold/disposed of. Social/community context The project which will be created when this product become used will benefit the community by the alleviation of water related poverty. According to Loris, a significant population in Peru have no access to clean water with more than 1.5 million people having no running water in their houses. The water that is delivered in Peru is also non-potable and unsanitary (Tegel). The project will solve this by using a system that separates and purifies the contaminated liquids. It will support reducing the effect that the chemicals have on the environment and the marine life. UV lights can also be used to kill the harmful bacteria in the water and waste. This will in turn reduce the effect that the chemicals have on the human population. Food security results when there is accessibility to water. This is because agriculture is the predominant user of water. There will also be less diseases that affect the population due to contaminated water and waste which will put up the overall health of the community. When water and sanitation goals are achieved, large economic benefits will be created for example water can be freely used to create various foods and be used to clean the clothes they wear which will get dirty in a humid and hot environment as they are worn. Therefore, this shifts the debate from transboundary water management to on-site systems and vice versa. Water and sanitation systems are believed to be like infrastructure systems such as traffic and energy. This is a false belief and should be considered when planning. The problem of water and waste when solved will impact the community positively. With health, water and food security, there will be an increase in life expectancy.   Environmental context Lobitos and Piedritas are known to be near the dry forest of Peru. Due to the need of materials, the town started causing deforestation in the nearby forests. This caused a new growth in economy from the construction of new buildings and other products however this caused an increase in the number of trees in the nearby forest affecting the nearby surrounding environment by a decrease in moisture levels. This forest is extremely important for tourism and the Eco diversity of the surrounding area. Due to climate change and the increasing loss of trees in the forests which reduce the forests affects against climate change from increase of greenhouse gases. This causes adverse effect on the environments such as a massive increase in destructive weather which creates increasing of damage to both the environment and town caused by the floods from the ocean current caused by El Nino. The effect of this weather is the reduction of the marine life which live in the oceans, one of the main sources of food supplies and employment. Lobitos and Piedritas are also known to have an oil reservoir which has created an increase in damage for the environment such as pollution of water and death of marine life from oil spill caused by the oil platforms which operate in the nearby sea which out precautions put in place. In this project the product’s aim is to help reduce various damages from pollutions and improve all 3 difficulties by reducing the various damage from the chemical spills. Therefore, this will have the effect of making the water have less contaminates which will kill the marine life such as fish as well as make it so that the chemicals can be reused in various products. Another reason the product will be able to help eliminate the problems that occur because of water contamination is that the product can help improve the health of the community and increase tourism from getting rid of the contaminated water which would also support the marine life prosper from the lack of harmful substances killing them. Economy context Economy in Lobitos and Piedritas mostly has two products which generated income. The two main producers of income are fishing, rearing animals and the tourist industry which has been developing and oil reservoir. The people of Lobitos and Piedritas not only sell their products for money but also barter and exchange various products with each other. There is also tourism industry which has been created because of the natural beauty and various foods that can be created from the native delicacies present in Peru. This attracts a lot of people making the demand for assorted items and services become available which increases employment and income. This attracts both tourism and other people to the town of Lobitos and Piedritas rising the demand for water, food and various other services. It has become a great area for tourist to surf while going on vacation and see the various beautiful scenery however because of the increase of travel of people the pollution in the ocean has grown. The cause of the various chemical and waste created from refining oil and sewage from the town which is polluting and killing the sea life and causing adverse effect on the surrounding area and people from contaminated water. Apart from surfing, tourists are interested in seeing the marvelous fauna and flora located in the forest which are being cut down to expand the town and various faculties. This causes deforestation and desertification in the surrounding area making it harder to live as food and other resources which come from the forest will eventually decrease and contribute to climate change from accumulation of greenhouse gases. The product that the team introduced will raise the local economies income by reducing the waste and chemicals effect the area and using this product to safely clean and provide water while being able to reuse the chemicals in other products. Demonstrate methodical assessment process to select preferred option by comparing design options against criteria. The team decided to tackle waste and water treatment, the team came up with 4 main ideas. Idea one UV purification system, Idea two bamboo tree purification system, Idea three plastic net to catch old bottle and objects and Idea four hydroelectric filtration system. The team analyzed the information provided and came to the conclusion that a massive concern was water and waste therefore the team decided to focus on making solution to this to ensure that there is enough clean water in Peru. Idea one was geared towards a system which would use a water flow regulator to control the speed of water current so that UV light for disinfection of water will be effective and be able to eliminate all harmful microorganisms. First the water would flow though two carbon made electrodes which would attract the metals contained in water to be reused. Next the water would go through a filter (with activated charcoal) which filters soil, sand, chlorides and sulphates to guarantee all chemicals are filtered to be recycled through tank attached as well as metals. Lastly the UV light will disinfect the remaining bacteria in the water making it drinkable. This idea is our final idea the reason being it is the most cost effective and practical out of all ideas as most of the components can be attained or made easily and once an engineer set it up and shows the villagers how to maintain or replace broken parts it will make it a cost effect system that can be in use. Idea two works differently to idea one it is also practical as it would have a similar system but without iv and only many layers of filters which water would be transported from the sea to be filtered then used as drink water or for cooking as it made of bamboo tree for the pipes it can be easily replaced, and filter will guarantee clean water while other substances can be recycled but won’t be as effect as idea one as it will require more resources to build than idea one. Idea three was to use recycled plastic to create a net to catch plastic and metal objects out of seas and river it is very cost effective and would be good for dealing with waste, but it isn’t able to deal with water pollution, so it wasn’t chosen as our other idea were better solutions. Idea four was the hydroelectric purification system. This works by converting the pressure from the current of water into kinetic energy for mechanical power, which then uses the kinetic energy to create movement that can power the filter using the generator effect to turn the mechanical power into electrical power. This electricity is then also used to electrify the water to eliminate and zaps away the pathogens, then power a filter to filter out the metals and chemicals and other impurities from water. The reason we didn’t use this idea is that it isn’t the best idea if we look at the weather of Peru it is mostly humid and hot and doesn’t rain a lot. Therefore, idea one is more practical than idea four because structural integrity of the ground isn’t that strong when effect by storms and any sewers or drains could collapse destroying system meaning the cost doesn’t out way the advantages. References Loris, Antonio (2012-11-01). “The persistent water problems of Lima, Peru: Neoliberalism, institutional failures and social inequalities”. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. 33(3):335-350. doi:10.1111/sjtg.12001. Loris, Antonio. “The persistent water problems of Lima, Peru: Neoliberalism, institutional failures and social inequalities”. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. 33(3):335-350. doi:10.1111/sjtg.1200, 2012. Tegel, Simeon. “The World’s looming Dry Taps”. U.S. News, 2018. Ioris, A.A.R., 2012. The geography of multiple scarcities: Urban development and water problems in Lima, Peru. Geoforum 43, 612–622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.12.005   Selvakumaran, S., Alderson, M., Pizarro, A., Almendrades, D., Harris, B., Bustamante, A., 2018. Sustainable decentralised wastewater treatment schemes in the context of Lobitos, Peru. J. Environ. Eng. Sci. 13, 8–16. https://doi.org/10.1680/jenes.17.00023