Week #41 - Our first filters, again

After four weeks of talking about the decision to move the workshop and another three to get production up and running, we finally have some results.

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One of the problems with the molds is that they all used different size bolts.  Willie being a man of efficiency would have none of it and drilled all the holes to 3/4".  Now the workers don't have to go hunting for the correct bolt size every time.

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Here is the final design for our pipe and hose.  The hose is securely glued into the pipe and there is no way it will be pulled out.  With the hose we are able to reach the top of the water bottle with only one elbow now versus five previously.  This is a savings of about $2.50 per filter

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Willie has also streamlined the whole process so each filter can now be removed by only one worker.  It used to take four just to pop the filter out of the mold.  Here you see the pulley he built to help lift out the molds.

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Here are our first filters.  There is still a problem with one mold and the filter wall thickness but we are working on a solution for that.

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Willie has a container sent from Miami every three months.  Most of the space is construction machinery but when he can, he brings boxes of shoes for the local kids. 

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On Friday we went to Tegucigalpa for Maria's wedding.  I promised her no pictures of the reception but I can say it was a fun night and very long 8-hour bus ride back to La Ceiba the next morning.

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Robert Kent Jr-robjkentjr@gmail.com
Wat/San/Health Consultant
www.RobRasa.com/hisblog/
Cell: +504 9871-5318
Work/Home: +1 (631) 458-1119

Week #30 (19.February) - Project Demonstrations

This was a hectic week with Rasa going to Danlí to meet up with an Interact group and me to San Pedro Sula for Tom Kennedy's Rotary group.

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We finished Colorado Barra ( 15°49' 29.1"N, 87°18' 10.2"W) with the school. They only have class about three times a week, when the teacher can make it. We did a puppet show to talk about why clean water is important. In my last entry, you saw the open well where they use to get their water. Now they have water in their homes and school.

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Tom Kennedy brought a group of Rotarians to Honduras to show them his projects in San Pedro Sula. He asked if we could put together a demonstration of the water filters for his group at the last minute. We brought them to our workshop to build some filters and later that week installed 15 more filters with them. Because of this Tom will now include water filters as part of his 3H grant.

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These ten Rotary Interact high school students were able to raise their own funds in order to purchase, construct and install 20 filters, as well as paying for their own trip to Honduras to do all this. While here they also met school kids at a bi-lingual school, went to a center for street kids and to the squatter town by the town dump. They saw the full gamete of life here; from the well off to the very poorest.

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This is Jose, our water quality monitor in Danlí. The bandage over his eye was from a botfly. These are nasty little insects that ravage the work horses here.

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Since Rasa had the camera this week here are some of her best shots. This woman is 86 years old and still doing her daily chores.

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This is her husband and he likes to watch her doing the chores. They make such a cute couple.

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Robert Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com

Wat/San/Health Consultant

www.RobRasa.com/hisblog

Cell: +504 9871-5318

Work/Home: +1 (631) 458-1119

Week #29 (From February) - Visiting the Manatees

Approximately 35 families live in this far flung community of Colorado Barra.  Perched on the Caribbean shore,  three and a half hours from La Ceiba but worth the drive to see a lagoon filled with manatees.   Well, we actually didn't see them because you couldn't really see anything in the water but the kids assured us they were there.

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This is called SODIS and it is probably the cheapest and easiest way to make potable water.  You only have to have sun, clear water and a plastic bottle.  The UV radiation of the sun does the rest if you let is sit out there from sunrise to sunset.  The biggest downfall to this is that it does not make the water taste good by removing the organics but it won't make you sick.

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The poorer houses take there water from shallow wells.  Here you see a shower on the very left and a shallow well at the other end of the pipe.  The problem with this picture is that after the shower all the water pools to the right and eventually seeps back into the well, along with all the chicken, pig and person contamination.

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Here we are loading the filters into the truck.  We can fit about 40 per load and have an arrangement with the municipalities to pay the cost of transportation.

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Here is another great picture demonstrating poor hygiene. You can see the lady cooking bread in the back and the well to the left.  Oh, and it would be hard to walk without tripping on the pigs.

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This was just a good picture Rasa took

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We ran into an entirely new problem here.  It floods frequently so all the houses are up on stilts so we had to make sure to reinforce each house to support a 300lb filter.  Having to find planks of wood for each house made for some slow installations.

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Robert Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com
Wat/San/Health Consultant
www.RobRasa.com/hisblog/
Cell: +504 9871-5318
Work/Home: +1 (631) 458-1119

Week #40 - Cutting Costs

This week we spent providing solutions to some of the most common problems that plague filter production. Willie and I have also come up with some new designs that we will test further in the weeks to come.

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One of the biggest problems is broken corners and rough edges along the top and leaks at the bottom.

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This is the cause of broken corners at the top. You are looking at the mold for the filter. When that space of light is filled with cement and the mold is pulled out, it breaks the cement leaving the three broken corners in the above picture.

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Another problem is cement that leaks out of the molds during the vibration to remove air pockets. This causes a rough edge along the top and side of the filter. We fixed this by putting in a gasket at the bottom and the sides of the mold.

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Fissures at the bottom of the filter are the number one problem with small molds. We found that the mold had the same problem with the bottom as its top; an indentation that fills with cement and then pushes out when it is removed. For this problem, we decided to cut it out and then add a larger taper to the mold.

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Something else we wanted to try was adding a 45° fillet to the bottom of the filter. This is to change the stresses on the filter when the cement is curing. We'll have to let you know but our first tests didn't have leaks.

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Also by putting the pipe in this way we have been able to reduce the number of elbows needed. In this picture you see two but in later versions we use only one elbow instead of five normally needed to reach the water bottle. We did this by changing to a smaller, stiffer hose that is glued into the pipe. Its pull proof also, I tried my best to pull the hose out of the pipe.

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Here is what the inside of the filter looks like with the small slotted pipe. An advantage to this design is we do not need to use large gravel to allow for water flow. With the small slotted pipe we only need the smaller gravel, which is sized not to clog the slots and still suspend the sand above it. This eliminates one bag of gravel.

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Robert Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com
Wat/San/Health Consultant
www.RobRasa.com/hisblog/
Cell: +504 9871-5318
Work/Home: +1 (631) 458-1119

Week #39 - Testing filters

Highlights this week were the printing of our stickers and starting the filter tests at the workshop. Oh, and getting our internet back on. It was off for five days last week and we were lost without it.

Instead of handing out tri-fold fliers when we install filters, we opted for stickers on the bottles. We figured for all the people who can't read, the pictures on the sticker were the best way to educate them.

Willie has also been thinking about how to improve the construction of the filters. A big way to save time is by using wood clamps instead of bolts to hold the mold in place.

Another idea he had was to replace three elbows with a flexible tube. This saves almost $1.25 per filter and looks a lot better. The only problem with this though, is that it creates a siphon. We fixed this by poking holes in the top of the tube.

On the weekend we went with the Rotarians to conduct a medical caravan in the community of El Recreo. All of the time and medications were donated by the two club doctors. They also took stool samples for parasite testing but I'll save you from having to see those pictures.

The doctors saw over 125 people. At first we were only going to see the people who bought filters but then decided to see everyone.

This is Digna, the little girl who almost died a few months ago. As you can see she is looking much healthier now.

Robert Kent Jr- robkentjr@gmail.com
Wat/San/Health Consultant
http://www.purewaterfortheworld.blogspot.com
http://www.RobJKentJr.blogspot.com
Cell: +504 9871-5318
Work/Home: +1 (631) 458-1119