The Massachusetts Institute of Technology put up a water purification system back in 2013 that used solar power to generate electricity for the process. After two years, the remote Mexican village was able to enhance the system, even doing business by selling purified water to nearby communities.
A remote Mexican village known as Calakmul in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula has been producing clean drinking water with solar-powered purifying system made by researchers from the MIT. Deep in the Maya Jungle in a small Campeche municipality, the institute installed two solar panels to generate electricity for a set of water pumps to push water to the filtration procedure using reverse osmosis. The system has been able to purify not less than a thousand liters of water in a day, collecting and filtering from rainwater to brackish well water.
Proving that the technology functioned, MIT installed another one in the village. With it, the institute taught the villagers how to perform maintenance and how to operate the system. Ever since, Unión Veinte de Junio residents managed the water filtration plant. Being able to produce clean drinking water with international quality standards, they sold it to the community for five Mexican pesos for a 20-liter bottle. This price was an agreement of the community members, such that they could sustain the water plant MIT developed.
The La Mancalona community was chosen by a local aid organization who identified the village that is probable to have such technology, given that the area did not have clean water resources. Being a community that gets enough sunlight during the day, it is a good area to develop and operate a solar-powered water filtration plant.
Photovoltaic powered reverse osmosis, a technology that the institute designed, gives out clean drinking water and brings about the benefits of drinking an abundant amount of water. People in the community as well as nearby villages have become more hydrated. Beyond having clean drinking water, the villagers are also developing a business plan on selling clean drinking water to travelers who come to the Mayan ruins, which can progress into a new economy.
