Biosand filter report and visit

This blog is about my visit to four villages. To give you some background:

This is a project I started in 2009 to provide people with clean water through using Biosand filters. At the end of our visit last year we had a problem finding suitable sand to put in the filters and so things were on hold until we knew we could build the filters in Ban Pong Hi village. Last year Kurt from Hawaii International HOPE Foundation, visited to do some projects and purchased four filter kits from Stefan at ThaiCare Foundation who is also producing filters. As a note: Last year Thaicare got an order for 240 filters and thus far have installed about 130 of them south of Chang Mai. Recently they surveyed 100 filters and 98 were in use. This area has bad ground water so the villagers really appreciate having clean water. The money was donated from the estate of a Canadian man who had died in Chang Mai so all the filters were donated free to the villagers.

On February 17 and 18 Annie, Ya, Jalose (our Lahu interpreter) and I visited four villages where Hawaii International HOPE Foundation installed Biosand filters last year near Mae Ai, Thailand. The filters were placed in villages chosen by Sila the Lahu leader of the Lahu Association.

On February 17 we visited Ban Huay Tao which is located near the Burmese border and west of Mae Ai. It was probably 6 to 8 km off the road off some quite rugged dirt roads. When we arrived it was clear the filter was no longer in use. We talked to the woman at the house and she felt the water came out too slowly. We spent some time explaining that it was supposed to be slow and the user needs to fill it and let the water collected over time. They do have some water that comes from the mountains but it is not filtered or treated. It didn't appear that they were concerned that it might not be clean since they have used that kind of water for any many years. We spent some time explaining to her how she could use it but she still seemed uninterested in starting it up again and so we asked if any other villagers might be interested in using it. Probably because they saw how it was used (misused) and misunderstood it's use no one was interested in taking it over. Since Jalose was one of the original villagers to be trained in making and installing the filters he asked if he could take it home and use it there. So we emptied the sand and took it to his house. So I am sure this filter found a good home.

Some lessons we learned in this village were: it was clear the family really didn't understand how to use the filter, I think they should have been given some water containers to collect the water and either shown how to make a little table to hold them under the water spout or be provided with that kind of table. Also if the filters are going to be outside it really needs to be protected from children's dirty hands etc. In one village I watched a young boy walk up to a filter that was outside, play with the plastic tubing with his dirty hands and then suck water out the pipe!

On Thursday the 18th we were visited three other villages where three more filters had been placed. These three villages are East of Mae Ai, not very high in the mountains but the roads were also quite rugged in many places.

This village called JE JO SEE had only 18 homes and their only source of water was a pond probably 100 to 150 yards away down the hill. All the houses had solar cells since there was no wired electricity. This filter was certainly used and appreciated. He told us that if you were the first person to the pond the water was relatively clear but the second person to collect water it was muddy etc. He also said that he had far less diarrhea and stomach distress since he started to use the filter. This seems to be an ideal kind of village in that they have obvious need for at a minimum removing turbidity and dirt from the water which is visible. He was the head of the village and said other villagers would love to have filters to. It was quite a poor village. He was also hoping someday to have a pipe from a mountain 8.8 km away and he showed us the pipes he had been able to get donated and buy. However, he only had 800 m of pipe so he needs another 8000 m of pipe or 2000 pieces! 8 km is approximately 5 miles which is one very long pipe.

Once again we saw that giving them containers to collect the water is an important thing to do and of course to remind them about separating the containers they use for pouring the water into the filter and the containers they use for collecting and storing the water that comes out of the filter. Maybe even very pictorial pictures on the containers would be a good thing to do. Of course, follow up should have been much more rigorous as we will see in the other two as well.

Next we visited Santisuk village. This is a bigger village and recently split into two villages. Apparently one village is Christian and the other is animist (which is the traditional religion of the Lahu people) but both are Red Lahu. This filter was outside the house and was used up until one month prior when they expanded the house and then celebrated their new year. They had every intention to move it back into the house and were very happy with the improved water and health that resulted from using it. This was a wealthier village than the previous one and had electricity. While we sat at the house we saw quite a few five liter containers with water and inside each container was a fairly consistent coating of algae. People would just drink right out of those containers. They did have a pretty good source of water in terms of quantity but there was no way to tell about the quality. Once again it would have been so much better for them to have plastic containers to collect the water from the filter.

The last village we visited was called Huay Muang (Lek or Noi ??? ask annie ) here we went to the school and found the filter sitting outside and obviously not in use. Apparently it really never was started up properly and the person who had planned to move it into their house never did move it. Once we found the teacher he was very interested in using it at the school so we spent time explaining how it should work and the need to move it in a secure place where it can be kept clean. We spent a good deal of time explaining that the capacity was not enough for all the children but that they could collect water over time. He promised to let us know when he started it up so we could revisit them after that. Also he will be picking up some chlorine to clean the tip.

One thing that nobody complained about was the weight which was surprising. The people who were using the filters also never said anything negative about the rate of filtration. It was obvious to us that some villages have a greater need due to the type of water supply or the location of the water supply and those should be primary targets. Unfortunately many of those villages are somewhat remote but that's why they need the filters.

The next steps in my opinion are:

Meet with Stefan to see about a better source of sand. Get four more sets of sand for the existing filters we have in Ban Pong Hi and install them at an appropriate site. Some of the places we have thought about are, Ban Paqui at Jatae's house. Jatae was one of the two Lahu men who came to the training. Another villager who learned how to make the filters Jatee who lives in Ban Pong Hi also wanted to have a filter at his home. And once again it makes sense to have people who have been trained to be using them.

Our goal is to help the Red Lahu Association manufacture and sell these filters. This will give the organization more credibility and hopefully some income. I think we should try to get a good number of filters funded but probably charge a small amount to the villagers to show good faith. I know this is a very capitalistic mentality but this came from a staff that Kids Ark too!

So once I establish we can get sand from Mae Taeng and the cost, then I can discuss with Sila and the Association about storage etc. It's probably a good idea for them to see how Stefan is making his filters, however he actually has contracted out that portion of the production.. This too is a possibility and then let the Association prepare the sand and deliver and train etc. He still has to prepare the sand and rocks and bag them up for delivery etc

I don't think we should ramp up to a huge quantity until we are sure that the next batch of filters also are being used appropriately etc.

Tom Westheimer

Here is a map and some pictures of the villages and the filters as we found them etc.



Here are some pictures too. You can adjust the speed of the slides by moving the mouse and then changing the speed using the plus and minus buttons ....


Finally a video of an elephant eating a banana leaf - watch how smart she is stripping the leafy section up but not including the dead area. She has a baby that I first saw when it was 4 days old. It is now 2 weeks old. I like to stop at the area where the mahouts from the elephant training camp live after the tourist show in the mornings. The mahout asked if I was a tour guide because I have taken different groups people there 5 times since I arrived :-) The baby is really cute and loves to butt and try to eat your clothes. At this point he just drinks mile from mama.