Through renewable, endowed grants, the Pentair Foundation works with the WateReuse Research Foundation to develop water-related research projects. Current projects include: the Graywater Reuse Project, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Reuse Project and the Nano-Material Research Project.
The goal of the Graywater Reuse Project is to provide information on water quality (both raw and post treatment), reliability of graywater treatment systems, and how well implementation and enforcement of codes are working in meeting water quality requirements.
The goal of the LEED Reuse Project is to create a useful guidance document that outlines the critical information that developers and
architects need to make informed decisions about implementing recycled water in their projects. The project will provide a practical tool, including critical educational and technical information, regarding project scope, costs, obstacles, and benefits of implementing recycled water in their projects. This document will be presented to the U.S. Green Building Council in an effort to achieve better representation of recycled water in the LEED rating system.
The goal of the Nano-Material Research Project is to gain a better understanding of the current nano-material research available today and its relevance to water reuse.
The goal of the Nicaraguan Rural Drinking Water Chlorination Project is to provide access to clean drinking water to villagers in need. Partnering with Compatible Technology International (CTI), nearly 40,000 villagers have gained access to clean water sources.
For more than a decade, Compatible Technology International (CTI) has worked with rural villages in Nicaragua to install its CTI-8 chlorinator in badly contaminated water systems. The water chlorination project uses low cost, low maintenance, non-electrical chlorinators to achieve a sustainable solution.
Peace House Africa is constructing a large-capacity water reservoir tank for Peace House Secondary School (PHS) in Arusha, Tanzania. The PHS Water Management Project will provide safe, clean water for the daily needs of students and staff at PHS.
The constructed reservoir will resolve water storage needs, which will allow the school to proceed with deploying the accompanying water management infrastructure for environmental self-sustainability. The PHS Water Management Project will lay the groundwork for transforming the campus into a live model for organic agriculture, water-efficient irrigation, wastewater reclamation and recycling, biofuel and ecological sanitation using locally-sustainable technology.
Engineers Without Borders-Kettering University Chapter is working to bring safe drinking water to villages in Mexico and South Africa. The goal of these projects is to identify for each village the best source of water and the most sustainable means of collecting, purifying and distributing water.
Engineers Without Borders-Milwaukee School of Engineering Chapter The goal of the Gravity Fed Potable Water System is to increase the quality of living in the villages of Vitostix and Vijolom III, Guatemala.
This water system will increase the life expectancy of every individual and also allow children to attend school instead of fetch dirty water. It will provide clean drinking water for 500 people for at least the next 25 years through a sustainable engineering project.
A unique part of this project is that the two villages, that used to compete for water, are coming together for this project. These two cities will now share a conveyance line to receive their water. This in turn will bring the villages closer together, and the villages will get complete ownership of the water system.