Clean Water Everywhere
posted by: Jasmine Greene 45 days ago
Jasmine Greene
Clean drinking water has always been a major issue in many developing countries, but with the onset of climate change and droughts, this may become a problem for industrialized countries as well. There is a simple solution for clean water: clay. Tony Flynn with the World Vision charity and Potters for Peace have discovered people everywhere can drink clean water with the materials around us.
Tony Flynn, a master potter and scientist, has created a simple to create water purifier out of incredibly simple materials found almost anywhere in the world. The filter is created with clay, organic materials (coffee grinds or rice), water and manure. The straw and rice are mixed in with the clay and water and then fired over some burning manure. The organic materials are burned away during the firing process and create small passages in the filter that allow water, but not pathogens, to pass. This filter effectively removes 96.4-99.8% of E. Coli in water [Source: ANU]. One of these filters can great a liter of drinkable water in only two hours. You can make your own filter by following these steps:
Tony Flynn, a master potter and scientist, has created a simple to create water purifier out of incredibly simple materials found almost anywhere in the world. The filter is created with clay, organic materials (coffee grinds or rice), water and manure. The straw and rice are mixed in with the clay and water and then fired over some burning manure. The organic materials are burned away during the firing process and create small passages in the filter that allow water, but not pathogens, to pass. This filter effectively removes 96.4-99.8% of E. Coli in water [Source: ANU]. One of these filters can great a liter of drinkable water in only two hours. You can make your own filter by following these steps:
Materials
1. crushed, dry clay
2. organic material(tea leaves, cofffee grounds, or rice hulls)
3. water
4. Cow manure
Instructions
1. Mix in enough water to make a stiff biscuit-like mixture
2. Form a cylindrical pot that has one closed end
3. Dry the pot in the sun
4. Surround the pot with straw and place it in a mound of cow manure
5. Light the straw and then top up the burning manure as required.
6. Filter will be completed in less than an hour.
This invention was purposely not-patented so that everyone could create their own water filters. Other organizations like Engineers Without Borders and Potters for Peace have introduced a similar clay filter designed by Guatemalan chemist Fernando Mazariegos. The filter follows the same idea as the one created by Tony Flynn, but fires the clay inside of a kiln rather than over an open fire and paints the filter with colloidal silver afterwards. The silver helps to remove bacteria and pathogens that traditional clay filters might otherwise miss [Source: Gazette Times].
While clay filters are easy to create and much environmentally friendly, there are some downfalls. One of the major disadvantages is that they can only produce a small amount of water and that if the water is turbid, then the filter needs to be scrubbed after use. This abrasive treatment wears away the ceramic and may even crack the ceramic. Any cracks would allow pathogens to short circuit the filters. Clay filters may be cheap to produce, but if the surface water that they are treating is highly turbid the filters may have a relatively short life [Source: RELFE] and need to be replaced at a very high rate.
Despite these flaws, clay filters are gaining in popularity and countries like Ghana and Cambodia are producing thousands of these for distribution per year. Clean drinking water does not have to a problem in the future if we take precautions not to pollute our water or climate.
Read more: clay, clean water, environment and wildlife, clay filters
comments
thank u so much
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great article
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This is very informative.But how do you use it in an apartment setting?Especially in an urban setting,this would be difficult.I'm a sneeze outside of Philadelphia,Pa.(2Blocks)If anyone has any ideas please contact me.I want to learn and do more.
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Thanks , just hope I never have to use it .
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Gillian V, congratulations on the basic, best solution. Eventually, it'll come to an "either or" situation, so we'd better wake up before it evolves into "Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink; water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink."
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I agree with Dietrich, while all the ideas and solutions have a great deal of validity the real issue of population is not being positively addressed. While the numbers of people continue to increase the worlds problems will not simply go away. We need to get to the fundmental issue and this is a way to stem population growth. I realise that this involves human rights etc but what rights will we all have when we are all starving and every living thing on the planet is threatened by extinction as a result of over demand on the earths resources.
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Ewww! Does it have to be manure? Not wanting to ingest manure is one of the many reasons I quit eating hamburgers.
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Water purifiers are fine gadgets in case there is water at all. But in regions of Afric water becomes less and less. In a German newspaper from September 25, I read (translated):
"Serengeti must die / ... Since 1970, the water flow of the river Mara had a reduction of 60% (average), mainly caused by massive logging in the headwater region, watering of wheat and bean fields and an enormous rise of water demand for cattle and people in Kenia. ..."
It's so logical: The more people - the more cattle - the more consumption of land and water. If people reproduce this way, the suffering will be multiplied in the next generation - same way like until now. Help them to get to a population density that can be tolerated by the ecosystems. And help all living beings by reducing our demands that rise the risk towards the climate disaster.
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very nice. Glad to see people are working on this.
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This idea is an excellent one no matter who invented it. That said, it is not a panacea. There are many things in water, depending on where it comes from that are small enough to pass through any filter. I believe that before it is widely distributed in an area, the device should be tested on the various supplies of local water to ensure that the filtered water is truly safe. I know that this is not possible everywhere and that individuals will download the directions from the internet from sites like this one where, as here, there is no mention of having the filtered water tested, when possible.
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