Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Based on this research, efforts were made to find an appropriate
technology for a simple, low-cost way to improve water quality. Several small
reservoirs have been built to test their feasibility for reducing potential
contaminants in irrigation water. The cleaning process is quite simple and
greatly assisted by solar radiation and increased temperature. First, water
enters the reservoir, where it is retained for about 10-14 days. While there, the
water is exposed to physical processes that act on the pathogens and parasites.
For instance, the action of keeping the suspended bacteria isolated from their
biological cycle for more than ten days reduces their concentration and
viability. At the same time, parasites sink to the bottom of the reservoir and
eventually die, leaving the water clean for vegetable irrigation.
Furthermore, the use of small reservoirs has been shown to have additional
benefits. Introducing productive fish to the reservoir compensates for the loss of
agricultural land and provides families with additional nutritious food to
consume or sell. In addition, this aspect makes the concept of reservoirs appealing
for other farmers in the area who might wish to construct one on their land.
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My sincere thanks go to the International Potato Center (CIP), the Urban
Harvest Initiative and in particular to the International Development Research
Centre (IDRC), whose AGROPOLIS grant programme funded the field
research. I would specially like to thank my research supervisor Gordon Prain
from Urban Harvest and Julio Moscoso from the Centro Panamericano de
Ingenierı´ a Sanitaria y Ciencias del Ambiente (CEPIS) for their time and effort
in helping me develop a research product. They provided excellent scientific
guidance pertaining to their specialties. I also want to thank my thesis advisor,
Victor Aguilar from Universidad Nacional Agraria la Molina, for his advice.
Finally, I want to thank Reinhard Simon for providing the freedom and
opportunity to pursue this research as part of my activities at CIP.
N
OTES
1 Henry Juarez, MSc, Environmental Sciences, PO Box 1558, Lima 12, Peru, tel: +51-1-
3175311 ext 2156; email: h.juarez@cgiar.org
2
Copyright 2002 ESRI. 380 New York Street, Redlands, CA 92373-8100, USA.
Urban Harvest baseline survey (Huachipa, N
˜
an˜ a, Nieverı´ a y Carapongo)
3
4
www.specmeters.com/Soil_Moisture/Soil_Samplers.html
5
http://riuweb.cip.cgiar.org/cipstat/
R
EFERENCES
Acosta, L., Alvaro, H., Jime´ nez, H., Manrique, R. and Torralba, R. (2001) Proyecto Regional
Sistemas Integrados de Tratamiento y Uso de Aguas Residuales en Ame
´
rica Latina:
Realidad y Potencial, Estudio General del Caso, Villa el Salvador, Lima, Peru
