

Lloyd Connelly

Lloyd Connelly, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California

"Small-Scale Ultraviolet Water Disinfection for Rural Health and Resource Management: A Case Study in the Purepecha Highlands of Mexico"

Category: Conservation of Water Resources: 1998

Each day, tens of thousands of people around the world die from preventable diseases - including pneumonia, amoebiasis, and cholera - that result largely from inadequate access to potable water. Interwoven with these health concerns are a broad spectrum of environmental concerns ranging from depletion of underground aquifers, the emission of toxins associated with the production, use, and discharge of chlorine, and the deforestation and indoor air pollution associated with boiling water over a fuelwood stove. This project will improve the balance between the need to supply disinfected water to people living in rural regions of developing nations with the need to preserve natural resources by promoting the successful dissemination and use of a new, small-scale ultraviolet (UV) water disinfection technology. Connelly is currently testing the unit, which can provide water for up to 2,000 people at an annual/per capita cost of less than 20¢ while consuming 1/6,000 of the primary energy required to boil an equivalent volume of water over a fuelwood cook-stove. His efforts involve an evaluation of the dissemination effort with an emphasis on identifying ways to improve the technology as well as establishing a testing/demonstration site.


A $25 UV Tube for purifying water won Lloyd Connelly $100,500 from the World Bank Group for a two-year testing and implementation program. Based on a concept he developed during his Lindbergh Grant project, Connelly designed, constructed and tested two prototypes of a UV Tube, built from off-the-shelf parts that are readily available in Mexico and suitable for household use. His prototype requires no daily maintenance, and is easy and inexpensive to operate and maintain. UV Tube
Want to Get Involved?