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  • From: Skye <skye@tortuga.com>
  • To: permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: water filter
  • Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 14:14:30 -0300


Hi All

I want to expand the discussion on water treatment
systems, by
specifically asking if anyone has information on
simple,cheap filtration
systems - the problem being asbestos fibers.

Asbestos is a nasty material, which was totally banned
in Oz about
twenty years ago, and I believe about the same time in
USA.
Unfortunately a governemnet ban does not induce any
level of morality
into the large companies that produce these toxic
materials. They simply
change their marketing and sell to less informed
populations.

So, here is Brasil, asbestos roofing is priced to be
just a little
cheaper than other alternatives. A large percentage of
houses -
especially in the poorer sections of the community have
asbestos
roofing. In addition, the cheapest (by only a fraction)
type of small
water tank, is also the asbestos one, so a majority of
houses store
their water supply in asbestos.

My particular concern is in a number of indigenous
(Terena and Guarani)
villages where we are trying to improve nutrition and
food security with
PC style vege gardens. Thanks to poor design, lack of
funding and
political manouevering it is not uncommon for these
villages to have no
water supply for two weeks at a time. Some have yet to
have a water
system installed (and so the children walk two
kilometers each day with
plastic buckets to the local stream, that is also
shared with cattle
and upstream villages, who use it to wash clothes and
as a toilet!).

Water harvesting is a viable option as I am talking of
an area that has
high rainfall for 5 or 6 months of the year (followed
by almost nothing
for 6 months) - so we can collect the rain, and I am
thinking in terms
of ferrocement tanks, or possibly sand bag tanks(cement
lined). But the
water will be coming of roofs of asbestos.

So, any way we can filter out the asbesos fibers. Would
a simple sand
filter work?? (remembering this is no rain one week,
torrential
downpours the next!). The solutions must be very simple
and very cheap
(for these people a can of coke is quite a luxury).

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks
Skye

--
Skye -
Rua Horto das Oliveiras,738 Granja Sao Luiz, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso
do Sul CEP 79074-070 - Tel 55 67 7850546
http//www.permaculture.freeservers.com
Profesor y diseñador en Permacultura, desarrollo humano, planeación
participativa y economía comunitaria.
Director del Instituto de Permacultura de México A.C.
Member of Red de Apoyo a la Permacultura Latinoamericana
2nd Congreso de Permacultura Latinoamericana ---- Octubre 2001
---BRASIL





  • water filter, Skye, 10/21/2000

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