India Bio-Sand Water Filter Project Update 11-27-2008
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From: Cathy Forsberg
Sent: Thu 11/27/08 5:57 AM
November 27, 2008
Dear Friends,
There is a cyclone pummeling the southern coast of India with torrential rain and flooding. We have been feeling the effects of this storm over the last two days with a cold steady rain that is very unusual in this part of India in November.
This "indoor weather" is giving us a chance to catch up on some correspondence and paperwork and to reflect on the "cyclone" of events that has made our heads swirl with possibilities over the last several days. We only have a few days left in India so we are scrambling to tie up the many loose ends of business and social obligations before we leave.
With only short sleeve shirts and sandals in Mike's bag, he bought a wool shawl to ward off the cold wet air that has engulfed the region and made our early morning function a battle of elements of politics and weather. We dedicated a village near Kolar early this morning. It was a milestone event for our organization. Our chief guest was the national Minister of Transportation and Ports who was a Member of Parliament for 25 years before he received his minister's portfolios. Lucky for us he was raised in this area and was persuaded to give us an audience last week by a good friend who is a supporter of our project. The full story will have to wait for another time but the benefit of the Minister's support to our program cannot be overstated.
Occasionally we need to see government officials for permits and approvals to carry out our Bio-sand filter project. A few days ago we found ourselves in the Education Department for the State of Karnataka for a meeting. A sign in the hallway read "personal secretary to the principle secretary to Govt. higher educational department" all in caps and in two languages, English and Kannada.
We are always intrigued by these Spartan offices and the people who inhabit them. There is a sense of being thrown back in time, a hundred or two hundred years. There are piles of yellowing files with the papers strung together with string and stacked into tattered cardboard file covers and then wrapped in twine to keep the bulging contents from exploding.
"Tappal" boxes were piled near the door of our waiting room. These boxes are throwbacks to the British Raj in India when the stacks of unfinished files were loaded into these boxes and ported on the heads of coolies to the waiting cars or carriages of the bureaucrats. Once at home, after dinner, the boxes would be opened, the files reviewed and signed and again loaded into the tappal boxes for porting back to the office the next morning.
These boxes looked as if they had barely survived the Indian independence in 1947. They are made from stiff cardboard and covered with canvas and lined with satin cloth. They are stitched together with thick cotton thread and are fitted with leather straps to snug the lid during transport. Tattered and peeling, they are still pressed into service.
But, most interesting of all in these offices was the "peep hole". This was a hole in the office door of the most important person in the office complex about the size of a two penny nail. The peons, (yes they call them peons here) would shuttle people in and out of the official's office, occasionally "peeping" in the hole to determine the timing of the visitor's business and get the next guest ready for their meeting. This peephole was so well used over the years there was a black pattern smudged on the white wall and door surrounding the peephole. There was a handprint smudge on the wall to the side of the peephole where thousands of times hands were pressed against it to lean in to peep. There were forehead and chin smudges on the door where the peeper needed to get the best view by pressing their face on the door. I guess we don't need TV to amuse us!
This meeting was a complex one involving three groups. We are making partnerships with other organizations that have an interest in clean drinking water. One of them is Akshaya Patra, a faith based organization that has a school feeding program in five States in India. They feed 800,000 students in poor government schools a nutritious lunch every day from ultra modern kitchens and specially designed delivery trucks.
Attendance has gone up in these schools simply because there is a hot meal served. Moreover, hungry children don't learn as well as fed children. For a large percentage of these kids, this is their only meal of the day. As chance would have it, we have installed 21 filters in Bangalore schools where they have feeding programs. They have seen our filters and the schoolmasters have been ecstatic about the water. Good food and good water, a match made in heaven. We had designed a pilot program with Akshaya Patra the previous week to provide 500 filters for their schools in Bangalore. We were to meet with the Headmistress of all the primary schools in the State to seek permission for the project.
Instead of a crusty old bureaucrat behind the peephole door, we found a young woman with intelligence, integrity and insight into our clean water filter technology and vision for the health of the schoolchildren. She was totally supportive of our program but required that our filters be certified by the health department. No problem; we will have it done.
Two days later we were sitting with RamaChandra, our project director when he received a phone call. After chatting for a few minutes he hung up and began laughing. The Headmistress had gone to the schools where we had filters and discussed them with the principals and schools officials. She decided all the primary schools in Karnataka should have the filters. She calculated they would need 56,000 filters!! Of course that might be a year or two away but the prospect of the potential volume of filters turned our conversation to building our middle management structure to cope with this ever evolving filter project.
The involvement of several other organizations is making the project stronger and better, but also more complicated to manage. Because our time is limited and RamaChandra is at his maximum capacity and directing the project on a volunteer basis our pressing need is to find an executive to help direct and coordinate the operations in India. We have spread the word amongst all of our partnering organizations of the need for such a person. We also need to build our field staff to promote our village programs. The manufacturing process can be handled and directed by our present staff.
We are planning a substantial training program for our top people and interested people from our partnering organizations in February 2009. The DHAN Foundation, one of five world training centers for Bio-Sand water filter technology will conduct the training program.
Somehow, someway, somewhere we will work through our growing pains to take this Bio-Sand water filter to a different level. The funny thing is no matter how high we set our sights we keep underestimating the needs and demands here in India.
We wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Cathy and Mike
South Asia Pure Water Initiative, Inc.
2832 Whitney Avenue
Hamden, CT 06518
www.sapwii.org
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