The sustainability of a design involves the degree of ongoing maintenance required for the solution to be in operation. Our water filtration system was designed to require minimal maintenance to ensure its usability in the remote community of Cape York. The only maintenance that is required is the annual replacement of the filters. This is a simple and easy process that does not require any expertise. Due to the material of these filters they are inexpensive and therefore additionally economically sustainable. Required the filters are maintained, our design is long lasting and sustainable.  

Filter Membrane	Membrane Casing	Final Assembly

A truly sustainable design solution would need to take into account all components. In this case we need to consider how the water filtration system would impact the rest of process of obtaining water.

Pre-Existing Infrastructure

The remote communities of the Cape York region often rely on boreholes to obtain drinking water. Some of the bore are powered by solar power and rainwater tanks serves as a back-up system. Water tanks serve as storage and some of the bore water no longer provide an adequate quality of water for drinking caused mainly the increase in saline. Along with many other contaminants has caused many bores to be unusable. There are communities that rely solely on a single bore for drinking water (EWB Challenge, 2020b).   

Over the years many bores has been abandoned due to an increase in contaminants and reduction in water pressure. A water filtration system would increase the usability of existing bore holes and increase the overall sustainability of the process of obtaining drinking water.

Note: Not all bores can be restored by only the use of water filtration as some bores no longer have enough water pressure to provide water.