Solar Desalination for Lake Titicaca Islands

This article is good for Bolivia, Lake Titicaca peoples

Abstract —Drought and scarcity of water resources require innovative and sustainable solutions to secure water availability for poor people. Choice of solar energy for desalination is a promising and sustainable cost-effective alternative for improving high quality water supply. Today, almost all Latin American countries use different desalination technologies except for Bolivia. Bolivia has an arid to semiarid climate and suffers from salinity problems especially the Altiplano area. Thus, there is a need to introduce innovative solution using latest technologies such solar desalination at locations with scarcity of freshwater. This study suggests implementing a small desalination plant of about 10 m3 /day as a demonstration plant and then successively extending the capacity. As well, it is suggested to build a solar energy system with bigger capacity to cater not only for the desalination plant, but also the excess energy to be benefit for homes, roads lighting, and other important purposes for the local community to improve life standard of the people.

Objectives and purposes We aim to suggest sustainable solutions for securing freshwater for people (e.g. Lake Titicaca Islands) that can improve living conditions. One suggestion is small-scale solar desalination systems. At present, surface water can often not be used directly due to its salinity and other pollutants. In general, surface water exists but may contain high salinity (slightly brackish). Desalinated water can supply long term high quality fresh water to secure food.

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Taxonomy

• Water
• Research
• Energy
• Desalination
• Solar Desalination
• Water Supply