Application of ultrafiltration for drinking water production in decentralised systems: 20 years of the AQUAPOT project

Access to drinking water is a basic human right which has become an international goal. However, despite the efforts made in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, about 700 million people are still without access to an adequate source of drinking water in rural areas of developing countries, especially in Africa Sub-Saharan. The AQUAPOT project, developed by the Instituto Universitario de Seguridad, Radiofisica y Medioambiental (ISIRYM) of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), both in Spain, has been focused research on the design, development and installation of decentralised drinking water systems as an alternative to existing water management systems in developing areas. AQUAPOT systems are based on ultrafiltration technology and have been successfully applied in different localities in Ecuador and Mozambique to produce safe drinking water for human consumption. The present paper describes the main actions carried out within the project AQUAPOT over the last 20 years. It describes the main features of the installed plants and the protocol to choose the best location; it also shows the main results achieved within the project, and discusses the lessons learned throughout the years in relation to the operation of the plants as well as the quality of the treated water.