Photon Water Technology s.r.o., a subsidiary of the Photon Energy N.V. group, carried out a total of three missions to the Republic of Peru this year to implement a project of the Czech Republic’s foreign development cooperation in the framework of the B2B programme of the Czech Development Agency Partnership with the Private Sector. The project entitled “Drinking water treatment plants for small and medium-sized municipalities in Peru” helps supply good quality drinking water to selected regions of the country, where a significant proportion of the population consumes water heavily contaminated with dangerous salts, boron and metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury due to volcanic activity or the negative impacts of mineral extraction.
“Our activities in Peru are now in the third year, during which time, based on the completion of a feasibility study, we have supplied water treatment plants to municipalities in the Tacna region, and recently also to a small community in the tropical rainforest in the Cusco region. Photon Energy Perú S.A.C., which was established in November 2018 and is another member of our group, has been providing us with support in performing the project,” comments Dr Petr Kvapil, Director of Photon Water Technology s.r.o.
Commercial representation of the company in Peru is an important step not only for finding business opportunities on the market of solar parks and water treatment technologies, but also for supporting development activities.
In the framework of the B2B project, Ms Nadit Paredes, a water treatment specialist for Peru and Latin America, underwent training in the Czech Republic. The expert training was aimed at gaining practical experience in communication with business partners and target groups of the project, with technical issues of treatment technologies and with monitoring and sampling of water.
“We are very pleased with the cooperation with our Peruvian colleagues, which has already brought its first significant successes this year. In September 2019, negotiations were concluded with the Tacna Regional Government and a cooperation agreement to combat water scarcity and promote the use of technologies to improve the quality and treatment of water for consumption by the local population,” states Dr. Petr Kvapil, sharing his enthusiasm from the third mission to Peru.
Two water treatment units with reverse osmosis, which were donated to the regional government of Tacna, were located in medical centres in Tarata and Coracorani. With the support of the regional government, seminars were also held for the general and professional public on environmental aspects, the need for safe drinking water and technological solutions for water treatment, including the acceptance of technologies by the local population.
Photon Water Technology will continue to supply water treatment plants to Peru in the near future. In 2020, it plans to build on the developing collaboration with Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann, which is actively involved in treatment technologies in the framework of its research projects.
Picture 1: Coracorani Health Centre – water contaminated by volcanic activity is treated using a small drinking water treatment plant.
Picture 2: Signing of a Cooperation Agreement between the Regional Government of Tacna (Gobierno Regional de Tacna). From left to right: Eduardo García, Director of Photon Energy Perú S.A.C.; Juan Tonconi, Governor of Tacna; and Dr Petr Kvapil, Director of Photon Water Technology.
Picture 3: Doctors and staff of the C.S Tarata Medical Centre with a drinking water treatment unit.
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Martin Kysly
T +420 774 810 670
E martin.kysly@photonenergy.com