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Accelerating innovative water treatment in Latin America

Nature Sustainability (2023)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 02 February 2023

This article has been updated

Sustainably addressing the water needs of populations in countries lacking adequate infrastructure is challenging. We discuss the potential of decentralized water and wastewater treatment using electrified processes across Latin American countries and reflect on what would help their implementation in the region.

Access to clean water and sanitation are human rights recognized by the United Nations (UN). Although an essential basic need, over 26% of the global population lack access to safely managed drinking water and more than 46% lack access to safely managed sanitation. This unfortunate panorama of water access inequity jeopardizes the realization of other basic human rights, such as the rights to an adequate standard of living and to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental well-being, that go beyond the water–food–energy nexus1. Conventional water treatment systems rely on centralized water treatment plants that ensure water quality standards before distributing the treated water via dedicated distribution networks2. Such a traditional approach relies on a costly investment in infrastructure that includes long-term maintenance of a grid or distribution system. However, such infrastructure may not be in place in many locations3. Furthermore, centralized treatment leaves unprotected all those who access water through private wells. In Latin America, where we focus our attention, water scarcity and quality are growing concerns. Estimates show that more than 77 million people have no access to water for basic needs4. Extensive implementation of water reuse strategies can alleviate and mitigate most of the undesired social and economic consequences of water scarcity. In addition, alternative water management strategies are emerging to enable safe water access off the grid5. This is the case of modular/mobile, adaptive, decentralized/distributed (MAD) water systems6 — the idea of water systems that can be operated virtually anywhere and can be powered by renewable energy sources.

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Fig. 1: Implementation of MAD systems at household level to ensure water quality and enable water reuse practices.
Fig. 2: Worldwide distribution of electrochemical water treatment startups.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded by São Paulo research foundation (grant numbers 2014/50945-4, 2017/10118-0, 2019/20634-0 and 2021/08701-4), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (grant numbers 303759/2014-3 and 303943/2021-1) and National Science Foundation (EEC-1449500) Nanosystems Engineering Research Center on Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment. We acknowledge L. A. Espinoza, H. Heinzen, E. J. C. Lopez and M. Castier for the continuous support to young researchers in their institutions in Latin America.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Alexsandro J. dos Santos, J. Ricardo González-Rodríguez & Sergi Garcia-Segura

  2. São Carlos Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, SP, Brazil

    Alexsandro J. dos Santos & Marcos R. V. Lanza

  3. Vicerrectorado de Investigación, Universidad Católica de Santa María, Arequipa, Peru

    Haruna L. Barazorda-Ccahuana

  4. Departamento de Química Física, Laboratorio de Electroquímica de Materiales Edificio de Laboratorios Científicos-VIP, Universidad de Panamá, Panama City, Panama

    Griselda Caballero-Manrique

  5. CHIBAS, Université Quisqueya, Mirebalais, Haiti

    Yvens Chérémond

  6. URE, Université d’État d’Haïti, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

    Yvens Chérémond

  7. Escuela de Ciencias Químicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

    Patricio J. Espinoza-Montero

  8. Environmental Protection Research Center, School of Chemistry, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Cartago, Costa Rica

    J. Ricardo González-Rodríguez

  9. Instituto Superior de Tecnologías y Ciencias Aplicadas (InSTEC), Universidad de La Habana, Havana, Cuba

    Ulises J. Jáuregui-Haza

  10. Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

    Ulises J. Jáuregui-Haza

  11. Observatorio Económico Sostenible, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala

    Andrea Nájera

  12. Centre for Water and Environmental Sanitation, Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS), Cochabamba, Bolivia

    Carla Oporto

  13. Departamento de Desarrollo Tecnológico, Centro Universitario Regional del Este, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Andrés Pérez Parada

  14. Departamento de Ing. Química, División de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Universidad de Guanajuato, Guanajuato, México

    Tzayam Pérez

  15. Centro para la Investigación en Recursos Acuáticos de Nicaragua (CIRA/UNAN-Managua), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua, Del Hospital Monte España, Managua, Nicaragua

    Valeria Delgado Quezada

  16. Facultad de Ciencias de la Ingeniería, Universidad Paraguayo Alemana, San Lorenzo, Paraguay

    Verónica Rojas

  17. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Matemática, Universidad de El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador

    Velia Sosa

  18. Programa Institucional de Fomento a la Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación (PIDi), Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana, Santiago, Chile

    Abdoulaye Thiam

  19. Grupo de Investigación en Remediación Ambiental y Biocatálisis (GIRAB), Instituto de Química, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Antioquía UdeA, Medellín, Colombia

    Ricardo A. Torres-Palma

  20. Departamento de Química, Universidad Simón Bolívar (USB), Caracas, Venezuela

    Ronald Vargas

  21. Instituto Tecnológico de Chascomús (INTECH), Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM)–Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Chascomús, Argentina

    Ronald Vargas

Authors
  1. Alexsandro J. dos Santos
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  16. Abdoulaye Thiam
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  18. Ronald Vargas
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  19. Sergi Garcia-Segura
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Alexsandro J. dos Santos or Sergi Garcia-Segura.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Juan Manuel Ortiz Díaz-Guerra and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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dos Santos, A.J., Barazorda-Ccahuana, H.L., Caballero-Manrique, G. et al. Accelerating innovative water treatment in Latin America. Nat Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01042-z

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