Ceramic Water Filters
Alex Steffen, 21 Nov 03
I don't know which I like more: the fact that a group called Potters for Peace actually exists, or the fact they seem to be quiet superheroes.
Specifically, they make a ceramic water filter which, it would appear, is high-tech (colloidal-silver-saturated earthenware), low-cost, easy-to-use and filters out "approximately 99.88% of most water born disease agents." They also make energy-efficient kilns. It makes me inexplicably happy to know that the potters are throwing down for sustainability.
(Thanks Vinay!)
Their numbers are completely amazing: the filters are made locally in places like Nicaragua and Guatemala and retail for around $9. Skilled potters can set up a production line in a couple of weeks, and an actual press to crank filters out at the rate of several dozen a day costs about three or four thosand dollars (if I remember right - it might have been $800).
$3/year for potable water (a filter lasts about three years) with local skills and local materials. This is the good stuff.
Posted by: Vinay on 21 Nov 03
quiet superheroes is right. i know one of the potters, lynette yetter, who is truly a superhero. she gives of herself unselfishly, and really struggles to promote the ability of indigenous people to be self sustaining in an increasingly complex world. i would definitely encourage anyone who is interested in supporting a project that really directly effects the lives of the people it professes to, to contact potters for peace.
Posted by: Nancy on 21 Nov 03
"...the potters are throwing down..."
Ouch, that was really bad ;]
Posted by: Jim Cox on 22 Mar 04
Here are some web sites with more ceramic filter information:
POTTERS FOR PEACE
http://www.potpaz.org/pfpfilters.htm
UN Brochure on Ceramic filter Technology
Publicación de la Naciones Unidas sobre el filtro
: http://www.ideassonline.org/bros_view_eng.asp?id=28 (ENGLISH)
http://www.ideassonline.org/pdf/br_28_59.pdf (SPANISH)
http://www.who.int/household_water/en/
USAID REPORT on the Ceramic Water filter (Danielle Latange,CDC):
Informe financiado por USAID sobre el filtro
www.edc-cu.org/pdf/report1-final.pdf
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES :
http://www.ide-international.org/Page.asp?NavID=210
GUATEMALA (AFA GUATEMALA FITLER
www.waterfiltersforthepoor.com
PRACTICA FOUNDATION/HOLLAND Small Smart Water Solutions book
http://www.practicafoundation.nl/smartwater/csp.htm
Engineers without borders
www.edc-cu.org/filtron.htm
CAMBODIA: RECOURSE DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL
http://www.rdic.org/waterceramicfiltration.htm
USDA:http://www.fas.usda.gov/excredits/gfe/Nicaragua%20visit%209_02.html
NICARAGUA FILTRON (in Spanish)
www.filtronnica.com
MIT :
http://web.mit.edu/watsan/img_nicaragua_ceramic.htm
THAILAND filters
http://www.burmeseyouthproject.homestead.com/burma.html
NEPAL AND INDIA filters
http://www.solutionsbenefitinglife.com/gallery.htm
Other
SWISS DEVELOPMENT AGENCY:
Poverty Alleviation as a Business
http://www.intercooperation.ch/sed/product/heierli/main.html
Posted by: Ron Rivera on 26 Oct 05
