Liz works to solve water problems in Mexico

The young woman noted the importance of young people being concerned about the problem of water

Thanks to a scholarship awarded by Juventudes, Elizabeth completed a research stay at NASA

Leon/Gto News

Elizabeth del Rosario Salas has only one clear objective in mind: to develop a project that will help capture, reuse and generate water, and that will end the water problem that Mexico has been facing for some years now.

The young woman originally from Romita, Guanajuato was one of the five young people who received a scholarship awarded by the Government of the State of Guanajuato, through Juventudes, to live an international experience at NASA.

“What I have pending this year is an education workshop focused on raising awareness about how you care for and manage the water you have available at home and in your community, but also a medium-term project that I also want to develop with my mentor, in collaboration, is a prototype of a bag that will allow you to purify water quickly, having the capacity of 1 or 2 liters and these types of bags are inspired by those used where natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods occur and are part of emergency kits,” said Elizabeth.

For 4 months, the young woman from Romita was able to carry out a research stay at NASA, with which she was able to analyze options to improve her project and begin its implementation in rural areas of the State, describing it as a quick and effective solution to have water available.

“It is feasible because the bags are very simple, you only need plastic, a membrane, which is a little more expensive and difficult to find, but really the principle and the prototype are very simple, so I think that in a year it could be in use”, said Elizabeth.

For Liz, the problem of water is an issue that should concern and occupy the young Guanajuatenses, since the availability of this vital liquid is essential to continue with all the daily activities of human beings, for this reason she made a call to the community of young Guanajuatenses.

“Water is a limited resource. Every year we have less of it available, we know that less than 20% of the world’s water is fresh water. But I think that in the coming years, as we have seen in the past with periods of drought here in Mexico, there are cities right now where there is a shortage of water. We have seen it with Monterrey and we have seen it with Leon, so it is a problem that will not only affect young people, but all people. I think that emphasis should be placed on developing technologies to treat water, because it will allow us to survive on Earth,” said the young Romitense researcher.

Elizabeth pointed out that, we are still in time for each of the inhabitants of Guanajuato to take action for the care of water, “although we have already had drought problems, we see how, fortunately, the dams and water reservoirs have been recovering, we have also had periods of rain, but we do not have to depend on the arrival of a period of rain and everything will be replenished, right now it has worked, but for that very reason I believe that we are still in time to be able to continue investing in these technologies, invest in them and that in the future it will be more solid and we will not struggle so much.”

Finally, Elizabeth urged the youth of Guanajuato to open their minds and think of solutions to global or community problems, and not just address individual problems.

“My message is that it is always good to focus not only on your interests in science, not on selfish interests, but to be able to identify what problems affect the water in your community, because sooner or later they will end up affecting you and your family, so when you stop thinking about yourself or your family and focus more on the people you live with and how everyone can have a better quality of life, that is when you really begin to have this vision of the common good and I think it is very important to think globally, not just locally,” said Elizabeth del Rosario.

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