Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Belize’s solution to reliable access to clean water using the sea

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Here on the islands of Belize, water is a precious resource. Water is part of everything we do, we drink it as a vital resource, we use it in our households for domestic usage such as taking a shower, but it’s also essential for our industries, to grow crops and for recreation in the tourism industry.

The country of Belize has roughly 386 km of coastline, and has many coral reefs, cayes, and islands in the Caribbean Sea. Many of these islands and cayes have limited fresh water resources. Our groundwater and aquifers are shallow and often salty and polluted, while rainwater harvesting isn’t sufficient to cover our needs. Therefore, many of us rely on water trucks or the municipal water to supply us with this essential resource, which can come at a high prices and limited quality.

What we do have surrounding our islands is seawater and plenty of sunshine. With the increased pace of development and our changing climate, these unlimited resources can come in handy to help us overcome our water challenges.

Compact desalination unit that can generate almost 3000 gallons per day and uses only 1.4 kW

Luckily for us, a cost-effective and easy to operate desalination technology has found its way to Belize. Unlike conventional desalination technology that requires a lot of electricity and can be a nightmare to maintain, this technology has been designed for efficiency and to make life easy.

Elemental Water Makers is the organization that has already commissioned several desalination units for villa’s, private islands, resorts and developers in Belize that, on average, save over 60% of the water expenses compared to the municipal water rates or trucking water.

Energy recovery technology explained: the saltier brine flow’s pressure is re-used to reduce the required pump energy, saving up to 75% on the energy consumption

The main game-changer is the use of ‘energy recovery’ to reduce the amount of energy by 75%. By re-using the high pressure of the saltier water, leaving the reverse osmosis membranes, a lot of energy can be saved by Elemental Water Makers. Their complete, turn-key units come with integrated remote monitoring and control, allowing you to gain insight in the water production anytime, anywhere. To preserve the lifetime of the reverse osmosis membranes, an automated fresh flush cycle is built into the control system that rinses the membranes with a little bit of clean water.

It’s possible to benefit from unlimited resources today, just like this villa owner on Ambergris Caye that has been using Elemental’s solution since 2018:
‘’We were thrilled to find Elemental Water Makers. Their system was of particular interest since it was designed for low power consumption from the start. They seem to have thought of everything! We should comment on the competitive price and cheerful service; we look forward to a long and happy relationship with this fine company.’’ John Holzmann, Ambergris Caye, Belize.

One of Elemental Water Maker’s engineers to commission a unit in Belize and give a training for operation. Left to right: Reinoud, Nino and Wayne

Their compact desalination unit can be installed on your property on short notice, while a training to operate and maintain the unit is included. The desalination technology is available starting at 50 gallons per hour, but are also suitable for much larger production capacities ( > 1000 gph). Integration with solar energy is certainly possible and a complete and dedicated solar-power package can be included as well.

Do you find yourself paying high utility bills or hauling water with trucks? Are you interested in getting access to a reliable and independent clean water supply, whilst enjoying savings? Elemental Water Makers friendly team is available to get in touch with you to discuss your water project that turns the sea into a valuable resource.

Elemental Water Makers:

www.elementalwatermakers.com
[email protected]
(+501) 622-7717

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