Founded in 2005, AguaClara Cornell pioneers research in community-scale water treatment technologies. AguaClara first started when Program Director Dr. Monroe Weber-Shirk tackled the challenge of providing clean water to Latin American communities. During his time in Latin America, he realized that conventional mechanized water treatment was not a sustainable option for many small cities and towns in developing countries. As a solution, Dr. Weber-Shirk founded AguaClara, a program that would develop and implement new sustainable and gravity-powered drinking water and wastewater treatment technologies for communities. With AguaClara Cornell as the core of this innovative research, AguaClara technologies has continued to adapt to local conditions. Since 2005, AguaClara Cornell has partnered with AguaClara Reach and other local organizations to build 14 AguaClara plants that provide safe water on tap to over 65,000 people, with the flagship plant in Ojojona, Honduras and other plants in India.