The Pure Water Project

After earthquakes devastated Haiti in 2010, a team of Embry-Riddle students and faculty built and installed a solar-powered water purifier to improve both the environmental and human health concerns created by the lack of infrastructure, clean water, and sanitation. The water purifier created enough clean water every day for an entire community. Since then, the group --then called Project Haiti-- has installed 10 water purifiers in orphanages, clinics, schools, and community centers in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Because the water filtered by the purifiers can be sold and profits can be used for purifier maintenance, the purifiers are a sustainable system. Additionally, the purifier is solar powered, so clean water remains accessible during power outages. Now known as Pure Water Project, the group relies on its six-point partner selection criteria and local contacts to determine best locations for the purifiers. Once determined, teams of students (Mechanical, Electrical, and Water and Sanitation Hygiene) construct the purifiers in ERAU’s Energy Systems Laboratory. In May, Pure Water Project students and faculty install the purifier to accomplish the group’s overall goal: use engineering principles to provide clean water to areas in need. Between 2010 and 2023, natural disasters such as hurricanes affecting Haiti and the Dominican Republic have only increased in both number and severity, decreasing recuperation time between disasters and further damaging water infrastructure on the island. These disasters create severe environmental issues for humans, like large cholera outbreaks, and the efforts of the Pure Water Project help abate these problems.