filters
Since 1998, Potters for Peace has been assisting in the production worldwide of a low-tech, low-cost, colloidal silver-enhanced ceramic water purifier (CWP). Field experience and clinical test results have shown this filter to effectively eliminate approximately 99.88% of most water born disease agents.
WHY
Every year there are 1.7 million deaths, mainly children under the age of five, due to diarrhea caused by unsafe water. The U.N.’s Millennium Development Goal is to halve the number of people unable to reach or afford safe drinking water by the year 2015. Achieving this would require that at least 125,000 people be connected to safe water supplies each day before the 2015 target.
Incredibly, this problem is still not being realistically addressed; high- tech solutions are proposed, but in general there is no investment in technology that can easily be copied by local workshops in developing countries.
The ultimate objective of the CWP project is to meet this urgent demand for safe water in rural and marginalized communities, and provide employment for local potters.
Potters for Peace is a member of the World Health Organization’s International Network to Promote Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage.
WHAT IS THE CWP
It is a simple, pressed bucket shape 11” wide by 10” deep, made with a mix of local terra-cotta clay and sawdust or other combustible, such as rice husks. The simplest press utilizes a hand-operated hydraulic truck jack and two-piece aluminum mold.
After firing to about 860 deg. C. the filter is coated with colloidal silver. The combination of fine pore size, resulting from milled, screened materials, and the bactericidal properties of colloidal silver produce an effective filter.
A 1.5 to 2.5 liter per hour rate of filtration is determined by the combination of clay/combustible mix and firing temperature.
For use the fired, treated filter element is placed in a five gallon plastic or ceramic receptacle with a lid and faucet. Pricing for ready to use filter units is determined by local production costs and is usually between $15-25 with the basic plastic receptacle. Replacement filter elements will cost $4 to $6. A basic production facility with three or four workers can produce about fifty filters a day.
HISTORY
The filter design used by PFP was developed by Dr. Fernando Mazariegos of the Central American Industrial Research Institute (ICAITI) in Guatemala, in 1981. The goal was to make bacterially contaminated water safe for the poorest of the poor by developing a low cost filter which could be fabricated at the community level.
In 1994 AFA or Family Foundation of the Americas, a Guatemalan organization, became interested in the ceramic water filter when it was found that other strategies were not yielding effective results. Chlorine tablets in rural communities were not well accepted; health complications associated with chlorine misuse caused additional concern. Boiled water often wasn’t effective when households failed to boil water long enough to purify it. AFA carried out a one year follow-up study on the initial Mazariegos-led filter project, concluding that including this filter into rural health education efforts reduced the incidence of diarrhea in participating households by as much as 50 percent.
See “Contra la Morbilidad Infantil” in the Supporting Documents section.
In October 1998, Hurricane Mitch tore through Central America. It was one of the most destructive hurricanes ever recorded, affecting millions of people. Safe water was urgently needed as supply systems (already of borderline capacity and efficiency) had been badly damaged. This prompted Potters for Peace to begin a Ceramic Water Filter production workshop in Nicaragua using the Mazariegos design.
In the first six months over 5000 filters were distributed through non-governmental organizations. The workshop, called Filtron, evolved into a worker-owned cooperative and is now incorporated as a privately owned business.
Potters for Peace has since provided consultation and training to set up production facilities around the world: Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Ghana, El Salvador, the Darfur region of Sudan, Kenya, Benin, Yemen, Nigeria, Tanzania, Peru, Somaliland and others.
The CWP has been cited by the United Nations’ Appropriate Technology Handbook, and tens of thousands of filters have been distributed worldwide by organizations such as International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, Plan International, Project Concern International, Oxfam and USAID.
We have financed or assisted in laboratory testing and field studies of the filter with various institutions, among them: MIT, Tulane University, University of Colorado and University of North Carolina.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Potters for Peace does not operate filter making facilities or sell filters but trains others to do so. Potters for Peace recieves no financial benefit in the form of a percentage of filter sales or in any other manner from the filter producers, the workshops are independent businesses owned by organizations or individuals. PFP filter technicians have all expenses paid and may recieve a stipend while working on site at a new facility.
Typically an organization hears about the CWP through the internet or at a conference, makes contact with Potters for Peace and a conversation begins. If an organization demonstrates that it can meet PFP’s project guidelines they will contract a PFP technician for set-up and training with local potters. An on-site visit of at least four weeks is necessary. The cost of start-up varies according to what resources are available, as much as possible local materials and labor are used at a filter facility. An integral part of PFP’s filter technology is the introduction of a fuel efficient kiln design.
The projects are designed to provide profitable and sustainable employment, the local retail price of a CWP being set so as to maintain its accessibility to the poor and also provide a decent wage for the workers.
Education, health training and follow-up are critical to the successful introduction of the CWP into rural communities. Potters for Peace has developed materials in several languages; brochures, decals and a manual of procedures which can be provided to the local partner for this work.
A functioning CWP facility becomes part of an ongoing intra-organizational filter dialogue, staying abreast of all related research and developments through email and follow-up visits when needed.
WATER TREATMENT OPTIONS
PFP’s CWP is one of several currently accepted low-tech, inexpensive, point of use water purifying options. Each has strong and weak points and ideally a community could choose what is appropriate for its own situation.
OPEN SOURCE
PFP’s ongoing development of the CWP uses the Open Source Manufacturing model in an effort to share and develop Ceramic Water Filter technology on a global scale.
Potters for Peace does not hold a patent on the CWP. The technology is available to anyone seeking to use and develop the Ceramic Pot Filter. It is hoped that all parties will share findings of research and development with PFP and the wider development community in an effort to expedite the availability of the CWP to those in need.
Nevertheless Potters for Peace assumes no responsibility for CWP projects undertaken without the approval of the PFP Board of Directors and Filter Committee. The technology recommended by PFP has been and continues to be subjected to extensive testing and all potential projects must meet guidelines established by PFP.
MORE INFORMATION
There is a list of sub-pages on the upper right, if you or your organization would like to know more about how a filter is made, studies done on the filter, guidelines for working with Potters for Peace etc. please look here first and then contact Kaira Wagoner or Peter Chartrand.
NEWS
Creative Machines of Tucson Az. working with PFP, has developed a “mini” filter press which can be checked as baggage on int’l. flights. In April 2009 we demonstrated a prototype at the NCECA conference. Ohio Wesleyan University took delivery of a mini press in Sept. 2009 for use in their ceramics program and in October we bought three more to have on hand for future projects and demonstrations. On our “videos” sub-page there is a link to a short video of the press in use.
In February 2009 the first ever Worldwide Ceramic Filter Workshop was held in Atlanta. A gathering of filter producers, trainers and researchers from around the globe. Read a brief report of it on our “filter program reports” page. The conference gave birth to working group on best practices and quality control which meets on monthly conference calls.
PFP filter tech’s Kaira Wagoner and Reynaldo Diaz were in Africa during May and June. They worked on the start-up of a filter production facility in Somaliland, advised at a new shop in Zimbabwe and then completed feasibilty studies in Rwanda and Mozambique.
A new filter facilty is underway in Pifo, Ecuador, Peter Chartrand is working as the on site trainer and production should start before the end of 2009.
Results of a survey undertaken by Justine Rayners of all filter shops worldwide using the PFP technology indicate that the aggregate existing production capacity is 37,700 filters per month.