Just a few thoughts.
First of all it might be a good idea to make a water filtering devise where
a community gets its dirty water instead of letting every household do it's
own thing. It is not easy to make an effective water filtering devise on a
very small scale except that one can of course sell more units.
If pathogens are the problem with dirty water it might be a good idea to use
a hay or straw bed/layer first because there an ecosystem of cilliates can
develop that eats bacteria. Below that layer of sand followed by a layer of
charcoal would be a good follow up to that.
Distilling water is a hugely costly business in terms of energy and
inpractical I think unless direct solar heating could be used. Even then, it
will be hard going to produce enough water for a family to drink. The system
you describe with extracting water from vegetation by means of a plastic
sheet and a cup can indeed produce a cup of water after a few hours but even
a small family of four will need at least ten liters per day and that system
can not provide that.
john
With all due respect, this is a well meaning project but it relies on the
same thinking and approach as most NGO's use, and is actually a band-aid
as he claims other methods are. Is it really empowering people to provide
themselves clean water, or is it merely promoting the current paradigm
that the 3rd world be reliant on the first world to help them?
How much does the unit cost? Certainly more than the intended recipients
can afford, therefor the project will rely on donors to support it. Where
is it built? It is manufactured from refined materials that are hard to
come by in non-industrialized areas. It is likely that this unit would be
dismantled and used for something else in extremely poor areas.
Also- it relies on boiling the water in order to distill it. This means
that people will need either gas stoves or firewood to get clean water,
further exacerbating the issue of affordability and the problem of
deforestation. What about solar distillation which can be achieved with a
sheet of plastic, a cup, and vegetation? Would it be more empowering to
teach people the PRINCIPLES of water filtration as opposed to selling a
pre-fabbed unit?
Same model, not a real solution. It actually makes me angry as this is an
ignorant approach to aid, though I realize the project means well and is
intended to address possibly the most pressing issue facing the world,
clean water. It may be suitable for certain situations though it would
not be in many.
There are many complicated issues to creating truly lasting and
sustainable solutions to the water crisis, this site attempts to address
hard
questions:http://waterservicesthatlast.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/the-naked-truth/
Our organization has attempted small scale water filtration projects so I
have a little experience with
this:http://www.surferswithoutborders.org/Slow_Sand_Filter.html
I do not have the answers but I have been asking questions-
Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 18:48:02 -0400
From: venaurafarm@bellsouth.net
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Pure Water Revolution
On 5/7/2012 5:53 PM, Marjory wrote:
> There is a some really nice work being done to develop, small, rugged,
> drinking water stills to alleviate the crisis from lack of clean > water.
>
> Check out:
>
> http://www.purewaterrevolution.org/
>
> Cheers,
>
> Marjory Wildcraft
Excellent. We need mopre of this. I understand the Berkey filters are
very good.
LL
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