Testing the Aquafilter in Timbuktu, Gambia
Gill Griffith with a village elder drawing water from the open well in Timbuktu Village, Gambia.
Test Results
nThe water from this Aquafilter was tested by Gill and the results are shown below.
Two sterile dishes were inoculated, one with water taken from the well and one with well water that has been filtered through the Aquafilter. After several days microbial growth can be seen as small dots in the petri dish.
Aquafilters can be used with almost any source of water including that from badly contaminated and polluted places such as infested swamps and wells.
However, the Aquafilter cannot remove dissolved chemicals such as salt, arsenical salts etc.
This means that if water is salty or contaminated with arsenic, copper or other poisonous chemicals, the Aquafilter will not make the water drinkable.
The Safe Water Trust – Ghana Visit February 2011
Ghana is classified by the UN as having a low income, earning less than $1 a day. The main purpose of our visit was to visit the two sites with Aquafilter Communities.
First Site - East Ghana, near the Volta Lake about 180 Km from Accra
Our partners, Original Volunteers are an england based charity that sends volunteers on short and longer placements. Our contacts, Fred, Rebeka and Sam were very supportive and enthusiastic, driving us round and discussing with us the problems of the area.
Aquafilter Community No 24, donated by two former volunteers, Karen Williams and Jo Perks, is in a small village by the lake called Nkyenenken. It is used in the school to filter water for the children, teachers and local community. The headmaster reported a drop in sickness and diarrhoea and also routine blood tests from the children showed a drop in Bilharzia in the six months the filter had been used.
The problems in this village illustrate the issues frequently found by villagers trying to get access to clean water:
- in the rainy season rainwater is collected and stored but the plastic container was mouldy mninside and impossible to clean.
- two bore–holes were not working
- a bore-hole that gave water smelling strongly of hydrogen sulphide.
- a small stream that was now dry
- the lake is a substantial distance away and contaminated with pathogens and bilharzia (a mnparasite causing liver and kidney failure).
- a well that is no longer used because it caused stomach illness. When tested, the water mnwas found to be badly contaminated.
The Aquafilter Community we brought will be used with the well water, lake water, harvested water and, when running, the stream.
Aquafilter Community no 25, also donated by Karen and Jo, is used in the local clinic to provide clean water for both staff and patients.
Aquafilter Community No 41 and 42, donated by Ponteland Rotary Club and brought by Derbyshire College, is in a large very poor village on the edge of the lake. Volunteers are helping to set up a bakery to make and sell bread in the village and later to other villages. The filter is used to provide clean water for both drinking and making bread. I tested the lake water and it was badly contaminated.
Loading...