Water purification plant: a successful Uruguayan patent

By Gabriel Pittaluga, Pittaluga Abogados

In November 1991 the Uruguayan Army begun their first United Nations peace mission in Cambodia. One of the first problems that Uruguayan military faced was the extreme lack of drinking water. At the return of this mission some of the Navy engineers worked together to design an innovate product: the first Water Purification Plant (UPA for its Spanish acronym).

The design was firstly adapted for the transport facilities that the Uruguayan Army had in the Cambodian mission and was gradually transformed into a transportable plant that included all traditional processes: coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, rapid filtration, disinfection, adsorption and pH adjustment. Its success is due to the fact that the manufacturing, construction, installation and operation is quite simple, allowing in a very short span of time the removal of any constraints. The design allows the treatment of a large qualitative range of raw water, ensuring safe and reliable production of drinking water.

The UPA it´s now an effective and reliable water treatment plant that can work with a wide range of raw water qualities and helps many worldwide populations that lack drinking water: there are over a hundred plants in operation in Central America, South America, Asia and Africa. It has eradicated outbreaks of waterborne diseases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela, South Africa, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Bolivia.