A culture-centric & sustainable systems engineering approach: Water filtration in Guatemala's Tzununa

The Partnership for University Research Abroad (PURA), a group of interdisciplinary students at the University of Virginia, has formed a partnership with Tzununa, a community on the shores of Guatemala's Lake Atitlan, to address its water quality needs. Faced with the need for a water filtration system, Tzununa has consented PURA's implementation of a point-of-use water filtration system. Utilizing a systems engineering design process, PURA designed a hygiene education program and selected an appropriate filtration technology to counteract the high incidence of waterborne illnesses in Tzununa. PURA emphasizes the sustainability of this project by laying the groundwork for a potential scale-up of the filtration system.