Gold & Silver Forum - Ceramic\ stoneware water filters...

http://www.potpaz.org/pfpfilters.htm

Ceramic Water Filter Project

Since 1998, Potters for Peace has been developing a low-tech, low-cost, colloidal silver-enhanced ceramic water filter. Field experience and clinical test results have shown this filter to effectively eliminate approximately 99.88% of most water-born disease agents. The filter has been cited by the United Nations' Appropriate Technology Handbook, and is used by the International Red Cross and the Nobel Prize winning medical relief organization Doctors Without Borders. The ultimate objective of the Ceramic Water Filter program is to help meet an urgent demand for safe water in rural and marginalized communities, while providing employment for local potters.

...the pineapple must show its juice...
-a West African proverb

Filter Websites

Table of Contents

Notice
Project Description
How to use your filter (Engish)
How to use your filter (Spanish)
Filter Training Guidelines

History
Technical Data
Frequently Asked Questions
Supporting Technologies
Supporting Documents
Mekong Water Purifier Trials

CONTACTS

Notice: In promoting Ceramic Filter Technology, Potters for Peace is not attempting to sell a product, ie: a Ceramic Water Filter, to the general public. We are interested in developing and disseminating the technology of very low-tech colloidal silver-enhanced ceramic filtration and purification of water. We do this simply as part of our mission as an organization of concerned potters applying what skills, knowledge, and technologies we possess to the problems that beset our fellow potters (and their communities) throughout the world.

Through the development of this technology, and its supporting technologies, we hope to provide potential incubation assistance to a badly needed cottage industry; the production on a village, and semi-industry level, of low-tech ceramic water filters. We believe its efficacy to be well proven and particularly adaptable to specific (rural, Third World) circumstances. By presenting information on the filter, we hope to generate interest and discussion among any individuals and agencies in positions to address health, cultural, economic, and quality of life issues in areas of the world most devastated by the effluent of the Global Economy in its current form.

We are potters first and foremost, working on the Ceramic Filter Technology project in conjunction with a wide variety of medical and scientific agencies. By pooling our collective talents, we hope to put our skills at the service of our beliefs. We welcome and encourage constructive criticism.

In other words, we're not perfect, but we think this thing's time has come!

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Project Description
The Production and Distribution of Locally Produced Ceramic Water Filters. The filter is primarily intended for household use, ideally as part of an overall water delivery network combined with intensive educational efforts aimed at improving water hygiene in marginalized communities throughout the world. The filter consists of a porous clay filter unit perched inside a lidded 5-gallon spigoted receptacle of plastic or clay. The filter unit is saturated with colloidal silver as a germicide/disinfectant. The unit has a flow rate of approximately 1-1.75 liters of water per hour. The filter has successfully been laboratory tested in over ten countries on four continents. This technology has been proven effective in eliminating coliforms, parasites, amoebae, and vibrio cholera from water.

An additional component of the project is the introduction, where appropriate, of fuel efficient kilns. Potters are introduced to techniques involved in the production of insulating brick. They are trained in building and using energy efficient solid fuel burner systems utilizing agricultural waste such as rice husks, coffee husks or saw dust. If successful, it is hoped that consumption of firewood can be reduced in pottery producing areas, minimizing such attendant problems as deforestation and soil erosion which can lead to tragic consequences during severe rains.

Low cost, low tech colloidal silver--saturated earthenware water filter technology is being explored, developed and/or employed across the globe. Countries include Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, the Ivory Coast, India, Nepal, and Indonesia. Potters in Georiga and South Carolina have expressed interest in the Ceramic Filter Technology for possible inclusion in assistance/reconstruction projects there in the wake of the 1999 hurricane season.

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History
The following is a brief overview of developments which led to the creation of the filter. For more detailed information on the filter, see Technical Description. To review the objectives of the Filter Project, see Project Description.

A colloidal silver enhanced earthenware ceramic water filter was first developed by Dr. Fernando Mazariegos of the Central American Research Institute for Industry (ICAITI) in Guatemala, in 1981. The goal was not only to filter turbid water but to make bacterially contaminated water safe. Another goal was to develop a low cost filter which could be fabricated at the community level.

In 1984 MAP International (an evangelical group involved in Third World health projects) initiated a project to train a group of indigenous Quechua potters in Cotopaxi, Ecuador to produce a colloidal silver-enhanced filter based on the original ICAITI design.

In 1994 AFA Guatemala, became interested in the ceramic water filter after results from AFA's health education efforts indicated a general rejection of chlorine tablets in rural communities. Health complications associated with chlorine misuse caused additional concern. Furthermore, people often weren't boiling water 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, leaving millions of people devastated. Among the urgent relief needs in this area, access to safe water continues to be a critical issue. It could take years before previous water supply systems (already of borderline capacity and efficiency) can be resuscitated. Partially in response to this crisis, PFP began a major effort to establish mass-production and mass-distribution of the filter in these and other areas.

Ceramiques d'Afrique, a PFP affiliate in the Ivory Coast, is involved in cutting edge experimentation with another promising appropriate technology application of silver-enhanced filtration utilizing a thinly cast ceramic bulb filter, saturated in silver nitrate, rather than the heavier and larger �Mazariegos style' porous clay filter unit of the filter.

Access to safe water for marginalized populations anywhere, under any circumstances, is highly complicated. Education, health training, and extensive follow-up are critical to the successful introduction of the filter into rural communities. For a discussion on PFP Ceramic Filter Technology methodologies and promotional strategies, see Supporting Methodologies. We are confident that Ceramic Filter Technology technology will eventually take it's rightful place as an integral component of quality of life efforts throughout the world.

Filter Websites

UN Brochure on Ceramic filter Technology (in English)

Publicaci�n de la Naciones Unidas sobre el filtro (in Spanish)

World Health Organization

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES

GUATEMALA (AFA GUATEMALA FITLER)

PRACTICA FOUNDATION/HOLLAND Small Smart Water Solutions book

Engineers Without Borders

CAMBODIA: RECOURSE DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL

NICARAGUA FILTRON (in Spanish)

MIT

NEPAL AND INDIA filters

SWISS DEVELOPMENT AGENCY: Poverty Alleviation as a Business