Water filters

This week I had two opportunities to find out about different types of water filters.

A visiting group from the USA brought 5 Sawyer filters with them and can provide more if we think it's a good idea - so we hosted a workshop to try them out.

"To clean the filter, you force water through it THIS way..."

All the groups enjoyed assembling the puzzle.  It's pretty simple and quick - the hardest part it drilling the hole through the plastic bucket by hand, but the whole assembly took about 10 minutes.

I need to think about how the filtered water can be stored so that it stays clean!

To show visually how good the filter is, we dumped in a load of mud...

...and people were willing to drink the clear water that came out (the science says that invisible pathogens are also filtered out!)

Generally feedback was very positive because the filter is so small and light and easy and quick to install... some reservations about proper use and cleaning though!

Feedback time (I did a lot of listening as well as talking)

I invited all the AIDIA staff as well as a big group from the local government water office - timing didn't quite work out as the government guys arrived just as we were finishing, so it turned into 2 workshops!  Here's the second round...

Then at the weekend I went on a training course (organised by CAWST, whose community teaching materials I've been using for years, so I was excited to go and find out more about them) learning how to build Biosand filters and how they work in practice.

"rock paper scissors with a twist... the Pathogen destroys the Baby, the Baby, destroys the Filter (by blocking the pipe with a pebble, for example), and the Filter destroys the Pathogen.

It was great to take part in a practical course with other people who work in the type of programme that I want to build.  It was fun that so much of it was hands-on, but also good to go through lots of information about household-level water treatment (as opposed to community-level which is what most systems are in Apurímac) so that I can now consider both types of filters and compare them to the needs and the culture.

Sieving sand and gravel - we did lots of this when I worked in Ecuador so I felt right at home.

We built 2 concrete filter casings...

...and learned about the PVC option the NGO "Desea PERU" had developed.

Then it was time to clean all the sand and gravel that we had previously sieved... but not too much!

Explaining just how clean the sand should be!

It took a LOT of water.

And here's our finished product... clearly there wasn't time for the whole curing of the concrete but the result was visibly clean water and the correct flowrate - and certainly more memorable than diagrams and calculations.

The class... I really need to learn to stand at the back in photos.  Here's my trademark slouch.

The course was in Pisac so this meant four days in the Sacred Valley, near Cusco - such a hardship!

I stayed at this hotel in Cusco for the first time 15 years ago... and here's why I keep going back.

Near Pisac - the valley where the training was.

On the final day we finished at lunchtime, so I got to visit the beautiful Archaeological Park of Pisac, and enjoy some walking.

 

Learning to be an opthalmologist

A team from "Go, Inc." in the USA came to visit AIDIA for a week - their main aim was to run a couple of rural vision clinics and see whether this could be something they come back and do on a larger scale.

I accompanied them to Mariscal Gamarra - officially to translate (which was encouragingly successful, both in Spanish and Quechua), but I also ended up learning a lot about vision testing, doing some preaching (about our desire for spiritual sight), and chatting and praying with members of the village (who are almost all Christians).

 

This man wanted glasses specifically so that he could read the Bible - it was wonderful to be able to help him do so!

Working out the Quechua for "which way is this arrow pointing?"

Trying out the prescription.  We also gave everyone sunglasses as a lot of them have sore eyes from the glare and the dust.

Waiting to have their eyes tested.

Hanging out with the kids... there are a couple of families here that I get on really well with but I don't often get to visit.

The dental team made the most of the crowd and gave their talk about teeth cleaning.  I had my usual role - holding the banner!

At the pastor's house - crushing white beans to make tarwi for our dinner.

We were late leaving because this lady asked me to pray with her... no-one minded!

Our sleeping arrangements - sheepskins make a very comfy mattress.

Ancobamba - Disinfecting the water system

Travel to Ancobamba is early and long and I always arrive very tired. Because it was going to be an all-day job, I decided to go up a day early so as to have time to rest.  And it was a good thing too - the driver slept through his alarm and we left Abancay and hour and a half late!

Dina taught her usual class in the preschool on Thursday, and then, because we had the day free, we offered to help Rosa (another lady from the church who always invites us in) in her fields.  So I learned to dig round potato plants to get rid of the weeds.  There were a lot and it was hard work!  Both Rosa (about 55) and the teenager she had helping were racing ahead - I was left far behind.  But it was another great opportunity to share in people's lives and work, and well worth the blisters and aching back...







The next day we were up early to start the disinfection - it's not actually a lot of hard work but takes a long time.  We had managed to get 2 people up from Abancay to help - one from the district government and the other from the region.

First find your spring... This was great for me as I had never been up here before - my training sessions take place in the evening as people are busy in the fields during the day.  The spring is halfway down a steep ravine, with amazing views.  It was originally fairly well-protected but a landslide damaged the structure so it's no longer covered, and an earth tremor earlier this year caused some of the water to flow out underneath the wall.

Here's the collection tank - our task of cleaning it was made rather more difficult by the fact that the drainage pipe was blocked by some unidentified object about 10 inches in.  So I (being the only one of this group with wellies) got in and shovelled out lots of stones, sand, concrete and the occasional bit of cowpat - using the lid of a bucket in absence of a better tool.  This being the first time I've seen it and the first time they have attempted to clean it, I imagine we might be a bit better prepared next time!

   

The next challenge - how to block the outlet pipe so that we could fill up the collection tank with chlorinated water for a reasonable length of time - and meanwhile how to divert the water coming in so that we didn't do more damage to the already vulnerable structure.  This is one of the times where people's littering habits come in handy - even in such a remote place we found a plastic bag to fill with leaves and use as a plug (poking it out again afterwards with a broom handle) and a coke bottle to put upside down in the overflow... and years of bailing out sailing boats gave me the solution for the still-flowing spring.

Having accomplished a lot more than nothing, and get some good ideas for how to do better next time... we headed down to the reservoir.  I love these walks and am so glad that my tendonitis is mostly gone so I can enjoy them again.

Down at the reservoir the other half of the team had been hard at work scrubbing the inside of the structure, and were now filling it up again.  When it got half-full we had to add a LOT of chlorine.

 

Finally, breakfast arrived!

This is one of my favourite juxtapositions... little girls in princess dresses covered in food and mud.  She's got her priorities right though - the charki (dried meat) that we had with our soup was delicious.

The rest of the day was mostly waiting.  Waiting for the reservoir to fill up (about 3 hours).  Waiting 2 hours for the chlorine to attack whatever might be in the walls.  Sending a message to the village to open their taps, then waiting for the chlorinated water to arrive.  Getting them to close their taps and keep the water in the pipes to do its work.  Waiting for the tank to empty (2 hours).  Waiting for it to fill again with fresh water.  Waiting 4 hours while the chlorinated water stayed in the pipes in the distribution system.  opening the taps again and waiting til the chlorine reduced to acceptable levels for consumption.  No wonder it took all day...

Our visitors from Abancay had brought an accessory to improve the regular chlorine dosing system, so while we were waiting they got on with the installation.

The water board are keen to work but don't necessarily know the processes they ought to follow - or perhaps don't understand why they are necessary.  And in a life that's full of hard physical time-consuming work, that often means things that are not well-understood don't get prioritised.  Thanks to last year's diploma studies and doing similar work on other villages, I could help the water board understand the necessary steps (and why all the waiting!) so that we could follow the requirements and get the benefit from all the chlorine they were using (at significant cost).  Not everything went smoothly... but we learned a lot about the system and will be repeating the exercise, hopefully in April - it should be done twice a year.

Today was really good as well for developing my friendship with the village nurse - so all that waiting was good for something!

District water rep, regional water rep, village nurse,
village plumber, acting president of the water board, me!