Water Charity

Katie was getting so anxious to move things along, she actually started to buy the materials from the hardware store on credit!

Yesterday, we gave a presentation before the Crestline-Lake Gregory Rotary Club, and they immediately made a generous donation to Katie B’s School Project. I promised we’ll put a plaque on one of the latrines.

Water Charity was so anxious to get the remaining funds to Guatemala in a hurry, we decided to fund the balance ourselves. We mailed the check today. We want to thank our local Postmaster, Jeri-Lynn Miller, both for inviting us to speak at the Rotary Club meeting, and for making sure the check arrives quickly.

To read the background information on Katie B’s School Project, click HERE.

This project has been successfully completed by Peace Corps Volunteer Katie Bovitz, through the generosity of the Rotary Club of Crestline.

During the planning stage, Lenny determined that it would be less expensive to purchase fabricated pilas than to build molds, purchase the materials, and pour them in place.

Lenny planned the implementation as follows:

The community participation will be in the form of transportation. They have already formed into two geographically distinct groups, and have pooled money to hire a truck which will bring the pilas partway. They will then split up into smaller groups and be responsible for bringing the pilas in by hand and foot. Each pila is made of solid cement which has been poured into a mold, and they weigh approximately 500 pounds each.

Lenny reports that to date the community has purchased and transported 8 pilas. This week, they will purchase 8 more to be used in family homes, plus an additional one for the local school. In addition, drainage systems will be set up.

In the near future, CARITAS, an NGO working in the vicinity, will send its water and sanitation officer to discuss pila use and care with the community.

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Dr. Toledo was in Los Angeles on a leg of a 30-day speaking tour. He is a Goodwill Ambassador of the More Peace Corps Campaign, an initiative of the National Peace Corps Association, to double the present size of the Peace Corps, and improve its quality. He invited a number of former Peace Corps Volunteers who had served in Peru and Bolivia to meet with him informally at his hotel to discuss vital issues.

We told Dr. Toledo about our ongoing projects, as well as the new water and sanitation projects we are developing for implementation in Peru.

The rise of Dr. Toledo to the Presidency of Peru is an unbelievable story. As a child, he worked as a shoe shine boy in Chimbote, Peru. A chance encounter with two Peace Corps Volunteers led to access to education. He went on to receive two

In December, we traveled to Central America and met with representatives of the Peace Corps in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. In each country, we discussed new procedures for working with Volunteers in the field, and we have developed many new projects to fill the void.

The Peace Corps has a large presence in each of these three countries. At present, the number of Volunteers in each country is as follows:

Guatemala – 184 Volunteers
Honduras – 194 Volunteers
El Salvador – 175 Volunteers

The emphasis and organization of each country office is different, but all of the Peace Corps programs contain elements relating to water, sanitation, and health education.

In general, P

Safe Passage works with the poorest at-risk children of families working in the garbage dump. They provide a comprehensive and integrated program that fosters hope, good health, educational achievement, self-sufficiency, self esteem and confidence.

With financial support from Safe Passage, each child is able to attend a local public school for the half-day term and then come to their center for educational reinforcement, caring and supervision.

The environment in and around the dump is toxic, with methane gases, rotting food, insects and vermin, and unsafe water. Entire families, including the children, are forced to work in these conditions in order to survive.

As part of the program Safe Passage provides literacy training and health education to the mothers of the children enrolled in the program. It is through this Mothers Group that we are implementing the filter project.

Unclean water worldwide is responsible for illness and death due to intestinal illness. In Guatemala, it is one of the leading causes of death, with disproportionate impact on infants and children.

Although there exists a water supply in the neighborhood surrounding the dump, it is contaminated with metals, bacteria, viruses and parasites. This population provides an outstanding application for one of the common filter technologies, as no other low cost alternatives for safe potable water are available. Obvious choices are those using biosand and ceramic technologies.

Biosand filters have been proven worldwide to remove contaminants in water through a combination of biological and mechanical processes. In essence, the filters make unsafe water safe for families to use for drinking and household use.

Ceramic filters have proven equally effective, and the choice must be made on other factors which include, for example, effectiveness, availability of materials, costs, ease of transportation, longevity, and preferences of the beneficiaries.

Safe Passage provides a clinic at their Reinforcement Center. The clinic offers on-site health care for the children enrolled in the program, as well as their direct family members. Medical records are kept, which will enable a controlled experiment to prove the effectiveness of the filters in combating gastrointestinal diseases.

This project is to be viewed as a pilot project, to be replicated and improved upon with demonstrated success. In view of the lifesaving effectiveness, low cost, long life, minimal maintenance, and ease of implementation, we have moved it to the top of our project list.

This project has been fully funded, through the generosity of Six Senses Resorts & Spas as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.

This project has been completed. To read about the conclusion of this project, CLICK HERE.

BioSand technology has been proven worldwide over many years. It involves a container to hold several grades of sand, plus a biological layer that forms on the top. Once set up, contaminated water can be poured in, and clean water emerges from the bottom.

The filters will be placed in individual households. Up to 75 gallons a day of clean water can be made each day, enough for a family of 8 to 10 people. The filter has no moving parts, requires no maintenance, and will last in excess of 10 years.

Traditionally the container has been made of concrete and poured on site. Our installations will use a new plastic container, and precise layers of various grades of sand.

In the pilot phase, we will train workers in the technology, and install 50 to 100 filter systems. We will also begin design and construction of a sand-making facility, plus several warehouses, in order to reduce shipment costs.

If you would like your donation to be used specifically for BioSand projects, please so designate on the donation form. A $40 contribution will provide for clean drinking water for an entire family for the next decade!

Elliot Marx
Elliot Marx is President of the Environment Club at Bella Vista High School, in Fair Oaks, California. Elliot started an initiative to benefit Water Charity, as well as the Environment Club, by personally offering computer help to people in his community.

He offered computer setup, installation, training and consulting, virus and spyware removal, hardware and software upgrades, networking, file transfers, and data backup.

He posted a flyer in 15 local businesses and shopping centers, and requested tax-deductible donations, of $20 per hour, for the benefit of these two organizations. He has set up appointments, and is starting to do the work.

Polytechnic School’s Challenge 20/20
A group of eighth grade students from Polytechnic School, in Pasadena, California, is participating in the Challenge 20/20 Program, of the National Association of Independent Schools. They are working on solutions to local and global water deficits. They have been reading about and discussing the issues of water shortage, and have taken field trips and done experiments to better understand the problem. In addition, they have prepared presentations to highlight the issues and propose steps to resolve them.

As part of

Bolivia has been badly affected by climate change. Many areas have been dependent for drinking water and agriculture on runoff from the melting icepacks in the mountains. The warming climate has resulted in a large decrease in the available water.

The construction of reservoirs has proven to be an effective way to provide life-saving water to needy communities. Water is saved during the rainy season and used as needed for drinking, household use, and irrigation of crops. The use of reservoirs has been shown to double or triple crop yield, in communities that are presently barely surviving.

Nuevo Mundo organizes community residents to participate in all aspects of the reservoir project. Local farmers provide hundreds of hours of volunteer labor, and contribute a percentage of the project cost, as well as locally available materials. There is also financial participation by the municipalities.

If you wish to donate money specifically designated for the Choquechampi, Bolivia, reservoir project, please click the Donate button below. 100% of your donation will go directly toward the completion of the project.

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Here is a video of Churchhill.