The 'Aqualuz' project, which deals with cistern water collected using technology from rain in the semi-arid region of Bahia, at a low cost. This was the subject of the interview with the young scientist Anna Luísa Beserra, on the program 'Isso é Bahia', on the radio station A TARDE FM.
During the conversation with presenters Jefferson Beltrão and Fernando Duarte, she explained how she works on developing projects to bring water to the needy population.
When asked how her interest in science came about, Anna Luísa, who is 22 years old, explained that she has been interested in the field since she was a child. “I don’t have a starting point, because since I was a child I have always liked science and imagined myself becoming a technology scientist in the future. I used to pretend that I was a scientist, doing experiments,” she said.
Living Conditions
About the project she is developing, which helps the population of Bahia and other states to have better living conditions. Therefore, the scientist states that the idea for the device came to her when she was still a teenager.
“I saw a poster for the ‘Young Scientist’ from the CNPQ (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), whose theme was ‘Water’. At that time, I was studying how big and serious the problem of drought and lack of access to water was here in our semi-arid region, which was so close to me, despite the fact that I was born and raised in Salvador and had never experienced this need.
So, combining my desire to be a scientist and do something to change the world with this opportunity to participate in the water award, I tried to look for some technology that was really viable, because we know that there are plenty of water technologies, but most of them are not aimed at the public that is isolated there, often without access to energy.
So, my starting point was to find something that could really be viable for that region,” he highlighted.
Agualuz
The device 'Agualuz', awarded by the United Nations (UN), works on the disinfection of water from rainwater collection cisterns through solar radiation. The project is an alternative for independent access to drinking water for those who need it most in rural areas.
“In the semi-arid region there is a technology called 'cistern', which captures and stores rainwater, and this already guarantees very good water quality for the population when it rains, of course.
However, due to maintenance problems and even staff sometimes failing to clean the cistern properly, this water ends up receiving microbiological contamination, which are bacteria and viruses, which cause diseases.
So, starting from this situation where there is a cistern, with rainwater, but which has exclusively microbiological contamination, the sun, solar radiation, ultraviolet, infrared that will kill these microorganisms”, he stated.
Scope
According to Anna Luisa, the goal is to expand services in the semi-arid region and reach more people. “We have already served more than 250 families here in Brazil, in five states. The idea is to be able to serve more than one million families, which is more or less the number of cisterns that we have here in the Brazilian semi-arid region,” she explained.
The project is currently running a campaign that aims to make water treatment available outside the country and improve the lives of the African population. The scientist said that the campaign is to bring quality water to Madagascar.
“Now we have a campaign launched for Africa. This year, we intend to go to at least Madagascar, a very poor community that doesn’t even have water to bathe in.
We have this campaign open to anyone who wants to contribute, this STW for Africa. You can find it on Instagram and also through our website. The campaign is open on Kickante, which is to bring clean water to Africa”, he concluded.