While often overlooked, water systems are a crucial part of any military field setup. ARPA, a specialist in the development of water generation and treatment solutions, is leading the way in creating sustainable and practical water solutions for the industry.
Maria José Acedo, commercial director at ARPA, spoke to Army Technology about the company’s innovative water, sanitation and hygiene (W.A.S.H) solutions, as well as the potential future challenges associated with water generation.
What are the water treatment and generation solutions that you provide and where are these used in the defence industry?
Maria José Acedo: Water is a scarce commodity worldwide. Transporting water makes a need as basic as drinking more expensive, and armies are not exempt from this problem. So instead of transporting water, ARPA proposes different mobile equipment with which to generate water by condensation of the humidity in the air with an atmospheric water generation solution called ARPAQUA, or drinking water from any source, either fresh or saltwater.
ARPA has created a series of solutions, which are presented in container or trailer, widely known to the armies and that meet their standards. Closing the cycle, ARPA offers wastewater treatment plants, sustainable equipment that allowed us to preserve the environment and leave zero footprint.
What are some of the key features and benefits of ARPA’s water treatment plants?
MJA: ARPA water treatment plants are compact, mobile and sustainable. We offer a wide range of equipment capable of purifying different types of water such as salty, fresh, and with sludge.
At ARPA, we’re working to reduce energy consumption as much as possible. That’s why we have a reverse osmosis water treatment plant that we can use with six solar panels which are incorporated inside the equipment.
Can you provide some examples of where your water treatment and generation solutions can be deployed?
MJA: Remote areas where there are no life services and a civilian or military unit has to be deployed is the perfect place to install our solutions. ARPA solutions are also perfect to complete the services that are missing in fixed settlements.
There are multiple examples of where water is a common problem and our solutions help to palliate the scarcities that can appear, including camps, hospitals, schools, universities, communities and remote rural areas.
What are some of the key advantages of ARPA’s W.A.S.H systems compared to other similar solutions available on the market?
MJA: Our W.A.S.H equipment is more than equipment, it is a solution; solutions that allow us to offer every client the equipment they need. We customise our solutions to meet client requirements in order to solve a specific problem. We don’t have standard equipment.
What do you see as some of the future challenges within this sector and how will your solutions help to combat these?
MJA: From our point of view, future challenges will be obtaining water with as little energy as possible. We provide solutions to this approach and we continue working and investigating to obtain and generate a more sophisticated and efficient solution and technologies. Research and development in our company is a must and we will keep investing in improving our solutions related to the water cycle.
What are ARPA’s aims going forward?
MJA: Water is the essence of life. Safe drinking water and sanitation are indispensable to sustain life and health, and fundamental to the dignity of all. At ARPA we strive to solve problems worldwide and to improve people’s lives everywhere in the world.
We have been developing our systems, solutions and technologies for more than 50 years and we have gained enough experience to satisfy every need, not only in the W.A.S.H sector but also in energy, housing, waste management, feeding, health and telecommunications.
Specialised in deploying our solutions in remote areas, we travel by train, boat or plane, no matter how remote or difficult to access the destination is.
