In November 2020, Photon Water Technology s.r.o., a subsidiary of the solar group Photon Energy N.V., completed the implementation of a drinking water treatment project in Peru, which was supported by the Czech Republic’s foreign development cooperation within the B2B programme of the Czech Development Agency Partnership with the private sector.
Between 2018 and 2020, a total of ten drinking water treatment plants were installed in small municipalities and communities in the Tacna and Cusco regions, providing residents with a long-term reliable supply of safe drinking water. The total cost of the three-year project was 9.637 million CZK (357 thousand EUR), of which 4.819 million CZK (178.5 thousand EUR) was covered by a subsidy from the Czech Development Agency. See the video to find out more.
Despite the adverse situation caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic, all of the planned activities were successfully completed in the last year of the project. In 2020, the support of the Czech Development Agency was 663 thousand CZK (24.5 thousand EUR) from the total annual budget of the project of 1.326 million CZK (49.1 thousand EUR), while Photon Water Technology s.r.o. financed the remaining half of the necessary funds from its own resources.
“Business activities in Peru, including the supply of small water treatment plants, would not have been possible without the support of another company from our group Photon Energy Peru S.A.C., which was established in November 2018. This was reaffirmed in 2020, when most of the world’s economies were hit by the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the local partner also played a key role in the most important activities of the B2B project,” says Dr. Petr Kvapil, Director of Photon Water Technology s.r.o.
In October 2020, a small water treatment plant was donated to the Jorge Basadre Grohmann University of Tacna at the Universidad Nacional. This reverse osmosis water treatment plant was installed at the Laboratorio de la Minería, ambiente de Servicios Auxiliares, where it will be used both in research projects and for the production of treated water for university staff and students. The treatment plant was put into pilot operation, operator training was provided and monitoring began to prove the stability of the achieved water quality.
“The first contacts were established with the university, which is actively involved in treatment technologies in the field of science and research projects, in 2019, when its representatives expressed interest in cooperation, not only in the supply of treatment technologies for specific projects, but also in the transfer of our know-how,” comments Dr Petr Kvapil.
The experience gained and the results achieved by the project will allow Photon Water Technology s.r.o. to offer solutions in other areas of Peru and in other countries in South America, where due to volcanic activity or negative impacts of mineral extraction, a large part of the population consumes water heavily contaminated with hazardous salts, boron and metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury. The low quality of drinking water represents a pressing issue for the whole region.
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MEDIA CONTACT
Martin Kysly
Photon Energy Group
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E martin.kysly@photonenergy.com