India Bio-Sand Water Filter Project Update 11-06-2009
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From: Cathy Forsberg
November 6, 2009
Dear Friends,
We left Calcutta and have flown to Bangalore. We spent two days in Bangalore securing a computer internet card for our new laptop and meeting with old and new acquaintances. One stop was the restaurant The Only Place, where the owner, our dear friend Haroon, would take us for western style eats and cold beer. He passed away in his sleep in August and we have been trying to cope with his unexpected death since then. We gave our condolences to his nephew Hassan and his son Shoaib who manage the restaurant and had a simple meal while we chatted with them about Haroon.
We had several meetings with Rotarians and a group called Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor who are interested in our water filters. Our discussions were about ongoing filter projects and plans for new ones. That night we wearily reached Kolar after a difficult drive because of road construction that caused multiple diversions. The highway between Bangalore and Chennai (Madras) is being converted from a two lane road to a six lane divided highway. Kolar, the town our workshop is located, is just off of this highway.
The next morning, we are enjoying breakfast at our roadside hotel at one of the few outdoor tables left due to the construction project. They had moved the outside hand washing station because of the construction and it was very near our table. We heard strange noises coming from that direction and turned to see a family of four vigorously brushing their teeth next to the water stand. They were walking back and forth brushing and brushing with the toothpaste foam all over their mouths without a care in the world. It was so funny our sides were aching from trying to hold in our laughter at the scene. Finally, the man who cleans the area for the restaurant came along and scolded the family about using the hand washing station as a sink. He told them to go and use the bathroom sinks for their tooth brushing activity. This family thought nothing of what they were doing and no one was at all embarrassed, quite to the contrary they were smugly happy with their clean teeth and bright smiles.
We drove to the village of Marasanapalla, which is 65km away from Kolar. It took one and one half hours for the journey as many of the roads are narrow, bumpy and full of pot holes. Anjenalou, an employee from our> workshop, knows the community steward in this village. When they learned of the filters from him, they were very insistent about being chosen to participate in the program. It is important to the success of the program to have such willing beneficiaries who actively participate in the process of learning about how to use the filters properly.
We were met at the village by the community steward, who showed us around to many of the beneficiary homes. This village is beset by multiple problems. There is no surface water in this village so their only source of water is from bore wells. None of the homes have latrines and all of the villagers use open defecation so the bore well water is contaminated. One of the beneficiaries was very eloquent in describing the problems she has had with the water. She told us that before she had the Bio-sand water filter she had to boil the water because she and her family were getting sick from drinking the bore well water. Now that she has the filter she no longer boils the water and no one is getting sick. This is a great savings for the family because they don't need to spend money on kerosene to boil the water. Like in all Indian villages, the children here were curious and rambunctious. We were probably the first Western people they had ever seen except on TV. As I said before, the village is beset by many problems. Not only is there water contaminated but it also contains high amounts of fluoride. The children were kind enough to show us their teeth, which were pitted and darkened because of the high fluoride content in the water. What you can't see on the inside is what the fluoride does to their bones. It weakens them and they will suffer later in life from the high fluoride content in the water.
Compounding their problems is the lack of sufficient electrical power to the village. Because there are no open wells and surface supplies of water in this village, all the water needs to be pumped from bore wells deep in the earth. Unfortunately it takes a lot electricity to pump water from such depths and this village only receives one hour of electricity a day between 6 AM and 7 AM. This is barely enough water for drinking, and they need much more to irrigate their crops. This is a mulberry-growing region. The mulberry is grown for the leaves, which are eaten by silk worms, which supply silk thread to the silk industry in this area. The problem is that mulberry requires irrigation. The villagers' ability to grow water needy cash crops is decreasing so they rely more on growing dry crops such as millet and sorghum, which have a low market value.
On the drive back we all lamented the problems in this village. There really is no solution other than to have more rain in this area in the future and to have that rain recharge the groundwater supplies. By increasing the groundwater supply the wells do not have to be so deep. A shallow bore well would reduce the fluoride content and the pumps could deliver more water at shallower depths requiring less electricity. However, that's a problem that we are unable to solve. It is too big for us and we feel badly for the villagers who are trapped in a situation that> they have no control over and probably never will. It is easy to get overwhelmed here because of the multitude of problems.
When we first began this project we vowed not to get sidetracked by trying to do the many other projects that are requested of us during our stay here. Staying focused on the Bio-sand filters has paid dividends and helped tens of thousands of people have access to clean water. We hope we will be able to help many more.
Cathy and Mike
South Asia Pure Water Initiative, Inc.
2832 Whitney Avenue
Hamden, CT 06518
www.sapwii.org
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