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.
Highlights
During my stay in La Paz city I have had so many chat with people, national radio interview and personal meetings e.g. several hours with the county mayor and locals were talking about water resources, energy production and desalination
We aim to suggest sustainable solutions for securing freshwater for people (e.g. Lake Titicaca Islands) that can improve living conditions
Safe water and sanitation are missing for the Lake Titicaca island people, as well as electricity, education, health, and sustainable development
Summary
During my stay in La Paz city I have had so many chat with people, national radio interview and personal meetings e.g. several hours with the county mayor and locals were talking about water resources, energy production and desalination. Due to sever water problems in Bolivia everybody was asking about freshwater and treatment of available water for drinking and other purposes. The rapid solution for many places in Bolivia is water and energy production considering the economical and environmental issues in the design of the projects in the future e.g. solar energy and challenging technology to produce freshwater. Desalination is a challenging technology that can provide freshwater when other sources and treatment procedures are uneconomical or environmentally non-friendly. With the rapid growth of water desalination technology in recent decades, the development has continued in many arid and semiarid areas. Solar desalination is an alternative for small-scale solutions where no other choices exist
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