Mission to Antarctica: assessing the water and sanitation situation on King George Island
Antarctica, the planet’s coldest and windiest continent, is home to not only penguins, seals and other animals, but also a growing number of humans – scientists conducting research in this unique environment.
All humans produce human waste, which has to be handled in a way so that it doesn’t put the pristine environment at risk. The current way of handling waste at the Uruguayan Scientific Base Artigas on King George Island – depositing it in septic tanks – is no longer sustainable as the summertime population can exceed 50 people. Using a wastewater treatment technology that allows the reuse of water would improve the current sanitation situation, experts from IHE Delft and the Technological University of Uruguay (UTEC) recommended after a recent assessment visit.
The team took samples to assess the performance of septic tanks and studied the quality of the base’s drinking water, which comes from nearby streams. The researchers also looked at the base’s drinking water distribution systems, and in the end confirmed that the base needs better wastewater management and some preventive action for safe drinking water.
Hector Garcia Hernandez, IHE Delft Associate Professor of Sanitary Engineering, said the mission, which also involved visits to other Antarctic bases to learn about their water and sanitation practices, was one of the most inspiring in his career:
“Based on our findings, we recommended to start a pilot with a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment technology which can reuse water. This would improve the current sanitation situation at the base and better protects the pristine environment,” he said.
"Based on our findings, we recommended to start a pilot with a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment technology which can reuse water"
Until the new system can be tested, improvements are needed in the current management system, said UTEC Associate Professor Alejandra Szabo, and IHE Delft PhD Candidate: “We worked on solutions for cleaning water storage tanks, and we evaluated possibilities to disinfect the water with chlorine, meaning that we can provide alternatives for drinking water.”
Berend Lolkema, research analyst at IHE Delft, said the work at the base went smoothly, despite chilly temperatures: “The people at the base were very helpful and provided us with everything we needed to do our research. We walked around the base to take samples and analysed them in the very well-equipped laboratory. Some of the water samples we could not take ourselves, but were done by marine divers who went into the lakes surrounding the base. It was very interesting to see and learn how they worked.”
How did it all start?
In 2022, IHE Delft, UTEC, and the Uruguayan Antarctic Institute (Instituto Antártico Uruguayo – IAU) initiated a new collaboration that marked the beginning of the meticulously planned expedition. Intense, time-consuming efforts were needed to buy the needed equipment and organize for their shipping.
The IHE Delft team travelled from Amsterdam, the Netherlands to Montevideo, Uruguay, where they meet with IAU and UTEC representatives to finalize details. The following day, they began a journey from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Punta Arenas, Chile, and then flew across to the Antarctic.
In the next Antarctic summer, the research team plans to ship a wastewater treatment plant to King George Island.
In a nice twist, the system was developed by a IHE Delft PhD Candidate, Mauricio Barreto, as part of his doctoral work. Learn more about Mauricio's work in his published research articles on membrane bioreactors and wastewater treatment.
“It’s great that an idea that was theoretically developed at IHE Delft in the past can now be used and implemented in real-life”