Solidarity youth in El Calafate, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

Students from the "Joven Labrador" Educational establishment in El Calafate, a city in the Patagonian region in Argentina close to the Los Glaciares National Park, have been working since 2019 on different projects that address local problems to improve the region sustainability and care for natural resources.

This time, we highlight the project "Reutilizar el agua del Glaciar Perito Moreno" [Reusing water from the Perito Moreno Glacier] developed by senior students who noticed a problem of lack of water in the area. The students and teachers designed a prototype of a grey-water treatment system for outdoor watering to reuse water that would be wasted otherwise.

They noticed that to make progress on the project, they needed an estimate of how much water was used on some daily tasks (washing hands, brushing teeth, washing dishes, etc.); they measured grey water in the school canteen, produced with its daily activities. They then used the information to design a grey-water collection system in their technology classes; they also designed a model, used a flowmeter (an instrument to measure water flow) and worked on the project specifications.

The project has already won two awards with funding to develop and implement the system —from a watering system, in the first stage, to filtered water for human consumption. The last step is to raise awareness in the community since, to implement the project, the whole community must put this proposal into practice.

Photo: Educrear

More information:
https://www.educrear.com.ar/es/educrear/reutilizar-el-perito-moreno/https://ahoracalafate.com.ar/contenido/8793/joven-labrador-la-escuela-laboral-abrio-las-inscripciones-para-2022