Water mineralization in resource-limited locations

Abstract

Water scarcity is a global issue affecting communities worldwide, as seen in events such as the 2018 Cape Town water crisis, the 2021 Quebec water restrictions, the recent water shortage in Catalonia, and the Neskantaga First Nations' 30-year struggle without drinkable running water. This highlights the urgent need for sustainable water resource management. Alternative water sources, such as reverse osmosis, rainwater, or atmospheric water harvesting offer promising solutions, though challenges remain concerning the mineralization these types of waters due to their low concentrations of essential minerals like calcium and magnesium. While conventional mineralization methods exist, this study explores an alternative approach by emphasizing the use of native materials to favor resource-constrained communities with limited access to commercial consumables. To assess water mineral dissolution, this work tested five native materials (soil, beige sand, red sand, clay, and gravel), two commercial materials (calcite and Corosex™), and a commercial remineralization filter. Results show that soil (at a dosage of 0.03 g/mL) and red sand (0.25 g/mL) have potential as native materials for adjusting and achieving optimal levels of water hardness (182 mg CaCO₃/L and 265 mg CaCO₃/L, respectively). Furthermore, red sand contains a higher proportion of magnesium ions, an essential nutrient with recognized health benefits, ensuring that World Health Organization mineralization guidelines are met. These native materials show promise for developing a low-consumable mineralization system that could be integrated with non-conventional water technologies, to meet the goal of providing water quality to communities in need, namely in survival conditions.