This morning was a rare sunny day, and as a result, we set out the solar cooker tests for the final time---using Kevin's EasyLid box model as well as the cooker that Jawadu's family helped putting together yesterday. The WAPIs this time were inserted right side up. By the afternoon, both WAPIs melted successfully and fell to the bottom. The water was patently too hot to touch. This is certainly an encouraging sign, and an indication of the possibility that the solar cooker might work in the sunnier dry season.
In the morning, Dave and Kevin walked over to Joseph's home with buckets and sieves, attempting to repair the damaged sand filter, while Mike unsuccessfully looked for a second carjack. First we took everything out---much of the sand had indeed become intermixed with the gravel to a deep level, perhaps because the sand we used was somewhat fine. Given this information, we are not sure about the lifetime of the sand filter before the same sort of thing happens again. This is something that we will have to play by ear and find out later. Fortunately, as described below, the overhaul maintenance is actually not as complicated as we imagined it would be.
Having removed as much fine sand into a bucket as we could, we started loading the small gravel-sand mixture onto the sieve with small pores bought in Masaka. Then we loaded the bottomost mixture of large gravel, small gravel, and sand onto a sieve with larger pores. Water, gathered from BH1, was poured over both sieves and could be reused. We also poured water from the effluent pipe, just to wash the sand accumulating in the pipe. Then we put everything back together and started feeding water from BH1 through it. The flow rate was restored. At first the water was yellowish in colour (though transparent), then clearing up significantly (though perhaps not perfect---we washed everything in the much cloudier BH1 water, and it might take much longer for the filter to start working properly). Finally, we moved back the filter into Joseph's home again, declaring it ready to use. The whole repair process took about 3 hours. Dora said farewell to us and gave Kevin a list of phrases to write down in Chinese before we left.
In the afternoon, Mike and Dave cleaned up most of the engineering mess in the backyard. Kevin went with Joseph to visit another brickmaker down in the valley quite near the Nalongo. However, having waited for about 20 minutes with no one showing up, we decided to give up and maybe come back later. According to Joseph, the bricks made here are higher quality, but the final product still sells for about 60 shillings apiece. We saw large piles of firewood in the slope above the stacks of drying bricks. When the time comes, this firewood will be intercalated with the brick stacks and set alight.
Then, Kevin took a boda boda to Kinoni to look for some sawdust. Having visited two carpenter shops, he found what he was looking for near the other end of Kinoni. The asking price was 2000 UGX/kg, and Kevin bargained a bagful down to 500 UGX. We will be unable to do any tests within the remaining time in Ddegeya, but we will try to bring back clay bricks and sawdust. He also brought back Dave's sought-after rolex (egg on chapati bread).
After a gigantic rain, Dave, Mike, and Kevin set out to look for the elusive MTN airtime. Having visited about 10 stores, we finally gathered about 20000 UGX worth of airtime for Dave, Monica, and Kevin. We must have almost exhausted Ddegeya's supply of MTN airtime cards.
In the evening, we showed Monica and Joseph how to conduct the two tests on Biosand filter (flow rate and bacterial counts). We have trust that Tom/Monica will follow through with the Biosand filter left at the clinic. We also left many Petrifilms to Joseph and asked him to bring plated samples to the clinic, which he visits every day.
After nightfall, we had a long chat with John regarding the future prospects of EWB's project. John seemed to want to distance himself from the community involvement aspect---which is understandable since his primary concern is on the Engeye clinic. We also agreed that the community's most immediate need is not necessary on water purification via filtering or solar pasteurisation techniques, but rather on the supply of adequate water. As an anecdotal note, while repairing Joseph's filter this morning, Kevin went with a 20 L jerry can to BH1 to fill water. It took him 6 minutes to fill about two-thirds of the jerry can. After about every 40 strokes, he had to wait for half a minute or so for the water to fill up. Despite the slow rate, there was a long line-up at the borehole nonetheless. This indicates that many villagers appear willing to wait for a long time for higher quality water, though this waiting time can be significantly cut down if new BHs can be drilled/digged. We asked about the price of digging a BH, and John gave us an estimate that BH4 took 4,000,000 UGX for the entire thing---labour, supplies, etc. He also gave an estimate for the price of the rainwater roof gutter as about 5000 UGX/7 ft, which is much cheaper than the price we asked in Masaka (9500 UGX/7 ft). I am closing now since the computer is almost out of power supply (and we are leaving Ddegeya hopefully in 3 hours, after doing some wrapping-up business with Joseph), but we will certainly have a lot more to discuss with MIT-EWB when we get back, in light of what we have seen and learnt.
Monday, January 25, 2010
January 24, 2010 - Ddegeya
At about 6 a.m., there was a heavy rain, and we neglected to put the solar cookers away. As a result, everything was soaking wet. However, by about 11 a.m., most of the stuff was dry, and the sun was up again. We got out the rectangular open box (ROB) and the EasyLid box cookers to test. After about 4 hours, both WAPIs failed to melt (though one in the EasyLid box appeared to have melted partially). As a control, during breakfast, we also hijacked a thermo with hot water to put WAPI in. The WAPIs did melt quite easily, but when Kevin emptied out the hot water and put one WAPI in again, the whole thermo had a spectacular explosion! Fortunately, the Albany crew, Mike, and Monica went to Masaka today, so we just asked them to pick up a thermo on our behalf. The WAPI survived the explosion intact.
In the morning, we put together the second Biosand filter. There was about 10 cm of gravel and maybe 18 cm of sand. The standing water level was definitely lower than that of the first filter, and as a result, the flow rate was faster due to the higher pressure drop possible. As usual, the water ran turbid for maybe the first 40 L, and then cleared up significantly.
In the afternoon, Kevin went with Joseph to visit a clay-brickmaker, but he was not interested in pursuing with the ceramic filter idea. However, he suggested a lady who lives past the Trading Centre who actually is knowledgeable in ceramic filters. We spent some time tracking this lady down, but it turned out that she had moved away from Ddegeya, and we do not have her contact information. There are other brickmakers in Ddegeya (possibly with firewood/kilns) that Kevin and Joseph might contact tomorrow, but testing ceramic filters is probably beyond the scope of this trip. If anything, Kevin bought 3 clay bricks (60 shillings each) and brought them back to the clinic. If we have time, we might try breaking them into pieces and/or bringing them back to the U.S. On our way to the brickmaker, we stopped by the newly fixed BH1, and did find many jerry cans lining up to be filled. However, the water flow rate was not as prolific as BH4, and something felt wierd about pumping: it felt like moving a lot of water up, and some portion of it did end up coming out of the wrong places at the pump head.
In the meanwhile, Dave went to investigate BH6---he was interested in seeing if turbidity would change with continued pumping. He found that continued pumping for about 5 min. dropped the turbidity level from 50 NTU to 30 NTU. We might take a look at this BH a little more before we leave---provided that we have time---but are unlikely to do anything to fix it.
In the morning, Joseph advertised to the two families (Jawadu and Gertrude) that the solar cooker workshop would begin at 4 p.m. today. Disappointingly, Gertrude never showed up, so we ended up holding the workshop to the family members of Jawadu. We first explained our tests, and how they never really worked (possibly due to uncooperative weather, limited materials, and our short stay). We are interested in testing the prototypes during the dry season---and asked the family's help. We emphasised that water is not safe to drink until the wax in the WAPI has melted---but even if it is not, then it is probably hot enough for other purposes (such as bathing) or for continuation for boiling using firewood (which could be saved). The family was quite eager helping us build the solar cooker (using the EasyLid design), but it appears that it was motivated just by the "free stuff".
In the evening, we moved the Biosand filter to Joseph's house. We did this by loading the filter onto a wheelbarrow, and then pulling the system over a bumpy dirt road. When the filter settled into Joseph's home, we found that the flow rate slowed significantly, and the water turned out yellowish. We did switch to the more turbid water source from BH1, but we think the main reason for this dramatically decreased performance is that the moving of the filter caused the sand to be intermixed with the gravel, causing clogging. This called for an emergency repair procedure tomorrow morning, where we intend to take the sieves and run through the different layers again, washing sand away from the gravel. Lesson learnt: never move an assembled Biosand filter on a wheelbarrow on a bumpy dirt road.
This implies that we should also not move our second Biosand filter prototype away from the clinic. Perhaps Tom and Monica (and their successors) could help us with the daily monitoring. As for Eddie, instead of the Biosand filter, he might be getting Gertrude's solar cooker, which he originally had wanted. But we shall see tomorrow.
Priority of things to be done before we leave:
- Fix Joseph's filter
- Clean up our mess of engineering on the Engeye grounds
- Hold a community debriefing meeting (likely Monday evening, say at 5 p.m.)
- Right BH5 with carjacks, and assess BH6 and BH1 (regarding the water coming out the wrong way).
- Set up some framework through which ceramic filtration can be pursued in the future.
- Chase down local hydrologcal / topographical maps from the office in Entebbe.
Chris Arsenault e-mailed yesterday informing us that he would not be able to join us in Ddegeya due to a sudden demand in Sudan. But he passed on the contact information of some people who work in Uganda whom we might contact later for collaboration/advice.
In the morning, we put together the second Biosand filter. There was about 10 cm of gravel and maybe 18 cm of sand. The standing water level was definitely lower than that of the first filter, and as a result, the flow rate was faster due to the higher pressure drop possible. As usual, the water ran turbid for maybe the first 40 L, and then cleared up significantly.
In the afternoon, Kevin went with Joseph to visit a clay-brickmaker, but he was not interested in pursuing with the ceramic filter idea. However, he suggested a lady who lives past the Trading Centre who actually is knowledgeable in ceramic filters. We spent some time tracking this lady down, but it turned out that she had moved away from Ddegeya, and we do not have her contact information. There are other brickmakers in Ddegeya (possibly with firewood/kilns) that Kevin and Joseph might contact tomorrow, but testing ceramic filters is probably beyond the scope of this trip. If anything, Kevin bought 3 clay bricks (60 shillings each) and brought them back to the clinic. If we have time, we might try breaking them into pieces and/or bringing them back to the U.S. On our way to the brickmaker, we stopped by the newly fixed BH1, and did find many jerry cans lining up to be filled. However, the water flow rate was not as prolific as BH4, and something felt wierd about pumping: it felt like moving a lot of water up, and some portion of it did end up coming out of the wrong places at the pump head.
In the meanwhile, Dave went to investigate BH6---he was interested in seeing if turbidity would change with continued pumping. He found that continued pumping for about 5 min. dropped the turbidity level from 50 NTU to 30 NTU. We might take a look at this BH a little more before we leave---provided that we have time---but are unlikely to do anything to fix it.
In the morning, Joseph advertised to the two families (Jawadu and Gertrude) that the solar cooker workshop would begin at 4 p.m. today. Disappointingly, Gertrude never showed up, so we ended up holding the workshop to the family members of Jawadu. We first explained our tests, and how they never really worked (possibly due to uncooperative weather, limited materials, and our short stay). We are interested in testing the prototypes during the dry season---and asked the family's help. We emphasised that water is not safe to drink until the wax in the WAPI has melted---but even if it is not, then it is probably hot enough for other purposes (such as bathing) or for continuation for boiling using firewood (which could be saved). The family was quite eager helping us build the solar cooker (using the EasyLid design), but it appears that it was motivated just by the "free stuff".
In the evening, we moved the Biosand filter to Joseph's house. We did this by loading the filter onto a wheelbarrow, and then pulling the system over a bumpy dirt road. When the filter settled into Joseph's home, we found that the flow rate slowed significantly, and the water turned out yellowish. We did switch to the more turbid water source from BH1, but we think the main reason for this dramatically decreased performance is that the moving of the filter caused the sand to be intermixed with the gravel, causing clogging. This called for an emergency repair procedure tomorrow morning, where we intend to take the sieves and run through the different layers again, washing sand away from the gravel. Lesson learnt: never move an assembled Biosand filter on a wheelbarrow on a bumpy dirt road.
This implies that we should also not move our second Biosand filter prototype away from the clinic. Perhaps Tom and Monica (and their successors) could help us with the daily monitoring. As for Eddie, instead of the Biosand filter, he might be getting Gertrude's solar cooker, which he originally had wanted. But we shall see tomorrow.
Priority of things to be done before we leave:
- Fix Joseph's filter
- Clean up our mess of engineering on the Engeye grounds
- Hold a community debriefing meeting (likely Monday evening, say at 5 p.m.)
- Right BH5 with carjacks, and assess BH6 and BH1 (regarding the water coming out the wrong way).
- Set up some framework through which ceramic filtration can be pursued in the future.
- Chase down local hydrologcal / topographical maps from the office in Entebbe.
Chris Arsenault e-mailed yesterday informing us that he would not be able to join us in Ddegeya due to a sudden demand in Sudan. But he passed on the contact information of some people who work in Uganda whom we might contact later for collaboration/advice.
January 23, 2010 - Ddegeya
After breakfast, the Albany people went away for a safari trip, together with Mike. This left Dave, Monica, and I in Engeye---we had some overdue quiet time.
This morning we got out the EasyLid cooker that Kevin built yesterday. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy for most of the morning, and the cooker got nothing beyond lukewarm. In the afternoon, we got a stretch of sunshine. The water in the kettle became too hot to touch, but the WAPI only melted a little. We started to suspect that this is because the WAPI was not completely submerged in the water---the WAPI is such that it floats and the wax end stands on the top; the water level in the kettle is such that the wax is barely touching the water. We later tried to invert the WAPI and the wax appears to melt a little more. But at this time, we cannot be sure. It would be worthwhile tomorrow to do a test on boiling water to see what happens with inverted WAPI.
We loaded some water into the bucket, but there was a leak. Dave then applied some more silicon glue and we loaded more water into the bucket. Until the afternoon, no leakage appeared, and the bucket/pipe system appears ready.
Dave and Monica went on a round-the-world trip to collect samples of all the water sources from Ddegeya. In the meanwhile, Kevin washed the last batch of sand, and started washing the bucketful of sand (about 15 cm) a second (and final) time. Unfortunately, due to the laundry activities and an attempt to construct the concrete base for the second rainwater collection tank, all the large jerry cans were being used. This left Kevin with a 5 L jerry can and a bucket, and many trips were required to Nalongo.
Kevin also tried the cloth filtration technique, using some of his cotton gauze, on the 500-NTU water from the ponds beside BH1. This did not seem to work well, even with 12 layers of cotton gauze, probably because the individual pore sizes of the cotton are too large, thus allowing most of the turbid stuff (except the mosquito larvae) to pass through. Dave has some more cloth tomorrow, which we will possibly test.
In the afternoon, Dave started sorting the gravel, and then we proceeded to wash those. We still had a hard time getting all the mud/clay stones out from the gravel, and even so, the wash efflux at the end was still somewhat cloudy. We spent about 2 hours washing through all these, certain that we were doing something bad with our backs and/or knees. In the evening, Dave got together some larger gravel to fill the base below the pipe, and the small gravel filled up to about 10 cm. We got some BH4 water to fill up the space, and left the sand-filling until tomorrow.
Kevin got a strange idea and began building a reflective open box (ROB) of a solar cooker. Dave was very sceptical about this configuration, as it employs no insulation whatsoever (it is an open-box panel cooker). He then proceeded to call this endeavour a disgrace of MIT engineering, while Kevin thought that it is a good way to clean up the extremely messy balcony by rounding up most of the scrap cardboard pieces, and can be considered a piece of (abstract) art. Monica stayed quite neutral in this debate.
We were planning to visit Ronald with Joseph today. Kevin went over the concept of ceramic filters with Joseph in the morning, together with some cartoon drawings using whatever artistic skills that could be mustered. However, Joseph became unexpectedly unavailable in the afternoon (he went to Kinoni), so we just have to leave this until tomorrow. We also plan to visit the households tomorrow, before Joseph becomes caught up with the clinic/medical mission stuff next week. We are also hoping to hold a debriefing community meeting on Monday, probably at 5 p.m. after the clinic operation ends.
This morning we got out the EasyLid cooker that Kevin built yesterday. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy for most of the morning, and the cooker got nothing beyond lukewarm. In the afternoon, we got a stretch of sunshine. The water in the kettle became too hot to touch, but the WAPI only melted a little. We started to suspect that this is because the WAPI was not completely submerged in the water---the WAPI is such that it floats and the wax end stands on the top; the water level in the kettle is such that the wax is barely touching the water. We later tried to invert the WAPI and the wax appears to melt a little more. But at this time, we cannot be sure. It would be worthwhile tomorrow to do a test on boiling water to see what happens with inverted WAPI.
We loaded some water into the bucket, but there was a leak. Dave then applied some more silicon glue and we loaded more water into the bucket. Until the afternoon, no leakage appeared, and the bucket/pipe system appears ready.
Dave and Monica went on a round-the-world trip to collect samples of all the water sources from Ddegeya. In the meanwhile, Kevin washed the last batch of sand, and started washing the bucketful of sand (about 15 cm) a second (and final) time. Unfortunately, due to the laundry activities and an attempt to construct the concrete base for the second rainwater collection tank, all the large jerry cans were being used. This left Kevin with a 5 L jerry can and a bucket, and many trips were required to Nalongo.
Kevin also tried the cloth filtration technique, using some of his cotton gauze, on the 500-NTU water from the ponds beside BH1. This did not seem to work well, even with 12 layers of cotton gauze, probably because the individual pore sizes of the cotton are too large, thus allowing most of the turbid stuff (except the mosquito larvae) to pass through. Dave has some more cloth tomorrow, which we will possibly test.
In the afternoon, Dave started sorting the gravel, and then we proceeded to wash those. We still had a hard time getting all the mud/clay stones out from the gravel, and even so, the wash efflux at the end was still somewhat cloudy. We spent about 2 hours washing through all these, certain that we were doing something bad with our backs and/or knees. In the evening, Dave got together some larger gravel to fill the base below the pipe, and the small gravel filled up to about 10 cm. We got some BH4 water to fill up the space, and left the sand-filling until tomorrow.
Kevin got a strange idea and began building a reflective open box (ROB) of a solar cooker. Dave was very sceptical about this configuration, as it employs no insulation whatsoever (it is an open-box panel cooker). He then proceeded to call this endeavour a disgrace of MIT engineering, while Kevin thought that it is a good way to clean up the extremely messy balcony by rounding up most of the scrap cardboard pieces, and can be considered a piece of (abstract) art. Monica stayed quite neutral in this debate.
We were planning to visit Ronald with Joseph today. Kevin went over the concept of ceramic filters with Joseph in the morning, together with some cartoon drawings using whatever artistic skills that could be mustered. However, Joseph became unexpectedly unavailable in the afternoon (he went to Kinoni), so we just have to leave this until tomorrow. We also plan to visit the households tomorrow, before Joseph becomes caught up with the clinic/medical mission stuff next week. We are also hoping to hold a debriefing community meeting on Monday, probably at 5 p.m. after the clinic operation ends.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
January 22, 2010 - Ddegeya
We were planning to have our solar cooker prototypes out in the morning, but it started raining and did not clear up until afternoon. We did bring the cookers out in the afternoon, but the water went up only to about 60 C, and none of the WAPIs melted.
In the morning, Dave and Mike went to fix BH1---quite successfully. The BH does not give a lot of water, but is in working order. Turbidity measurements were done on the BH (20-30 NTU) and the nearby pond (about 500 NTU). One thing that worries us is that Joseph and Eddie (the two people meant to be testing the Biosand filters) usually get their water from the 500-NTU pond. This means that an additional cloth pre-filtration step must be done. We explained the situation to Joseph and he said that he would be able to use the BH, or pay someone (e.g. 500 shillings) to get water from Nalongo. We have not discussed the situation with Eddie.
In the meanwhile, Kevin washed 4 batches of sand, when the water traffic at BH4 was low after the rain. He also started feeding P1 water into the working Biosand filter prototype (this prototype had so far been fed with BH4 water, which has very little colonies on the Petrifilm tests). After about 60L of P1 water to the filter, we performed Petrifilm tests on the influx and the efflux in the evening. This will hopefully give us some estimate of the filter efficiency.
What worries us a little is the flow rate. When the filter is filled to the top, the flow rate is roughly 1 L per minute (same as yesterday and the day before). However, if we just add a little water (e.g. 1 L), this amount could take maybe 4 minutes to clear. For the second prototype (which we are building), we propose reducing the thickness of the fine sand from 20 cm to 15 cm in hope of increasing the flow rate (so far we only have about 12 cm of washed fine sand anyways).
In the afternoon, Kevin walked to Kinoni to get 6 bolts for the BHs, two wash basins that MIT-EWB owe Engeye (we drilled holes into those for diffuser plates). He was looking for some cardboard sheet, but was unable to find them (he was told to look for them in Masaka). He ended up spending 1000 shillings on a used cardboard box whose dimension, when stretched out, was perfect for the inner lining of the EasyLid box cooker, which Kevin is going to attempt.
In the meanwhile, Mike and Dave went to BH5, and had some more trouble. The pipe seemed stuck in an awkward position and wouldn't go down---they needed a carjack to lift this. John lent them a carjack and they went back to BH5 with no avail---now they needed two carjacks. We do hope that BH5 could be returned to its original shape, or otherwise it would leave MIT-EWB in a rather embarrassing light.
Freddie came to say goodbye---he is going to Kampala for vacation and will not see us before we leave.
Towards the evening, Mike and Dave started drilling holes and connecting the pipes for the second sand filter. Unfortunately, the collector pipe was not threaded long enough for a rubber o-ring, and we ended up just applying a lot of silicon glue and hoping for the best tomorrow. In the meanwhile, Kevin washed 2 batches of sand and then worked on building the EasyLid box cooker. Everything went according to plan until the step of fitting the inner box. The problem is that the inner box is much shallower than the outer box, and it was necessary to give the inner box some support from underneath such that a heavy thing (e.g. a kettle full of water) does not cause its collapse. We first tried folding a long thin strip of cardboard sheet many many times to the right height. This proved rather unstable. Then we tried cutting some plastic bottles to the right height. This worked better. But Joseph proposed cutting some pieces of wood. This was promptly done with Joseph's excellent carpentership, but we were unable to find anything to stick these pieces of wood together to the right height---nails were too short for the thick wood blocks, and we were unable to find duct tape. We are sure that we can work something out eventually, but at this time it was getting a little too dark, so we just called it a day.
In the morning, Dave and Mike went to fix BH1---quite successfully. The BH does not give a lot of water, but is in working order. Turbidity measurements were done on the BH (20-30 NTU) and the nearby pond (about 500 NTU). One thing that worries us is that Joseph and Eddie (the two people meant to be testing the Biosand filters) usually get their water from the 500-NTU pond. This means that an additional cloth pre-filtration step must be done. We explained the situation to Joseph and he said that he would be able to use the BH, or pay someone (e.g. 500 shillings) to get water from Nalongo. We have not discussed the situation with Eddie.
In the meanwhile, Kevin washed 4 batches of sand, when the water traffic at BH4 was low after the rain. He also started feeding P1 water into the working Biosand filter prototype (this prototype had so far been fed with BH4 water, which has very little colonies on the Petrifilm tests). After about 60L of P1 water to the filter, we performed Petrifilm tests on the influx and the efflux in the evening. This will hopefully give us some estimate of the filter efficiency.
What worries us a little is the flow rate. When the filter is filled to the top, the flow rate is roughly 1 L per minute (same as yesterday and the day before). However, if we just add a little water (e.g. 1 L), this amount could take maybe 4 minutes to clear. For the second prototype (which we are building), we propose reducing the thickness of the fine sand from 20 cm to 15 cm in hope of increasing the flow rate (so far we only have about 12 cm of washed fine sand anyways).
In the afternoon, Kevin walked to Kinoni to get 6 bolts for the BHs, two wash basins that MIT-EWB owe Engeye (we drilled holes into those for diffuser plates). He was looking for some cardboard sheet, but was unable to find them (he was told to look for them in Masaka). He ended up spending 1000 shillings on a used cardboard box whose dimension, when stretched out, was perfect for the inner lining of the EasyLid box cooker, which Kevin is going to attempt.
In the meanwhile, Mike and Dave went to BH5, and had some more trouble. The pipe seemed stuck in an awkward position and wouldn't go down---they needed a carjack to lift this. John lent them a carjack and they went back to BH5 with no avail---now they needed two carjacks. We do hope that BH5 could be returned to its original shape, or otherwise it would leave MIT-EWB in a rather embarrassing light.
Freddie came to say goodbye---he is going to Kampala for vacation and will not see us before we leave.
Towards the evening, Mike and Dave started drilling holes and connecting the pipes for the second sand filter. Unfortunately, the collector pipe was not threaded long enough for a rubber o-ring, and we ended up just applying a lot of silicon glue and hoping for the best tomorrow. In the meanwhile, Kevin washed 2 batches of sand and then worked on building the EasyLid box cooker. Everything went according to plan until the step of fitting the inner box. The problem is that the inner box is much shallower than the outer box, and it was necessary to give the inner box some support from underneath such that a heavy thing (e.g. a kettle full of water) does not cause its collapse. We first tried folding a long thin strip of cardboard sheet many many times to the right height. This proved rather unstable. Then we tried cutting some plastic bottles to the right height. This worked better. But Joseph proposed cutting some pieces of wood. This was promptly done with Joseph's excellent carpentership, but we were unable to find anything to stick these pieces of wood together to the right height---nails were too short for the thick wood blocks, and we were unable to find duct tape. We are sure that we can work something out eventually, but at this time it was getting a little too dark, so we just called it a day.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
January 21, 2010 - Ddegeya
This morning, Dave and Mike left for Kampala in search of BH parts and Plexiglas.
Kevin set up two solar cooker configurations---the same as yesterday, except with black-painted pot and kettle, and a stronger sun. Unfortunately, at about 12:30, it started raining, and the solar cookers must be moved indoors. Both WAPIs failed to melt. The Biosand filter was tested this morning, and the flow rate was about 57 seconds per litre.
Then Kevin set out to BH6/P3 to keep track of the water traffic. During the one-hour observation window, here is a transcript of events. All water collection was done at P3---no one used BH6.
8:57 - Observation starts
9:06 - Two young girls and an older girl show up, with 20L + 10L + 5L. The little girl is afraid of mzungus.
9:06 - One young man shows up with 2 x 10L.
9:09 - The young man finishes fetching the water. He lives about 5 minutes' walk away (Kevin later saw him farming just at the intersection of the footpaths near BH5, on the right-hand side of the rich house in the direction of the Trading Centre). He fetches water here about 2-3 times per day, needing about 30L/day.
9:16 - The three girls finish fetching water. They live perhaps 1 km away. They come here twice a day, perhaps fetching 70L/day.
9:21 - The same young man appears again for his second water fetching, with 2 x 10L.
9:22 - Two girls appear, with 2 x 10L + 5 L. A minute later, another young girl eating 2 mangoes appear with 5L. These three girls play around with BH. They don't speak English. When asked where they live, they reply "Ddegeya". We chat until 9:26.
9:23 - The young man leaves.
9:30 - The three girls reappear. They might live near the Trading Centre. We chat until 9:48.
9:46 - A lady with baby and 20L appears. When fetching water, she chats with a man.
9:53 - The lady, the man, and the baby leaves. At the beginning of the footpath leading to BH6/P3, the lady turns left (towards Mbarara), and the man turns right (towards the Trading Centre).
9:57 - Observation ends.
Kevin collected water samples from BH6 and P3. Then he returned to the clinic, and headed to Nalongo to do the same observation. Due to the higher traffic here, the water-fetcher(s) are letter-labelled for clarity. Observation starts at 10:22, whence there were already 7 people there (though from the notes Kevin only has 5 people so he must have botched up a little on the record-keeping):
B: Hien Mugerwa the hired water-carrier. He carries 2 x 20L on bike and leaves at 10:25. He returns at 10:47 with another 2 x 20L and leaves at 11:01. His family uses about 4 jerry cans per day, and collects rainwater. He claims that the water traffic is low today, as many households are still consuming rainwater collected from the heavy rain 36 hours ago. Kevin explains to him that Mike and Dave are in Kampala in search of parts to fix BH5. He thinks that fixing this BH is a waste of time, as the water is too deep (we politely disagree on the point of the water level).
C: One young man with 4 x 20L on bike. He fetches water 2 times a day, and lives in Bunyere. He leaves at 10:32.
D: Two girls with 2 x 5L on foot. At 10:37, they leave in the southern direction (left).
G: One young man washing a large blanket in a transparent basin. He refills his basin at 10:35 and at 11:10. His name is Mohammed. He lives near the mosque at the Trading Centre. His house uses about 10 jerry cans of water per day, usually collected from P3. Today he comes here because washing blanket requires more water. He goes to school, but complains that he does not have enough money for pens and books. He also complains that his eyes are bad, but that he cannot afford glasses. He seems altogether too eager to talk to Kevin. After the observation ends, Kevin helps him wring the blanket dry, and then shows him the Biosand filter and the solar cookers at the clinic, together with the three girls mentioned in I below. Mohammed claims to have learnt about these technologies at school.
These people arrived later:
A: A girl and a boy arrive on bike with 20L + 10L at 10:23 from the south (left). They leave at 10:37 after having found some grass to stuff the opening of one of the jerry cans.
E: A young woman with 2 x 10L arrives on bike at 10:28 from the north (right), followed by a boy at 10:29. They live in Bunyere. Having picked up some grass to stuff the opening of one uncapped jerry can, they leave at 10:36.
F: One young man arrives at 10:35 on bike with 2 x 20L from the north (right). He lives near P3 but the water is bad---according to Hien the water-carrier. He leaves at 10:50.
H: One man arrives at 10:44 from the north (right) with 3 x 20L. His family lives in Bunyere near St. Timothy's school, and collects rainwater. He leaves at 10:57.
I: 3 girls arrive at 10:49 with 2 x 10L + 2 x 5L from the north (right), and leaves at 11:03. The family is located at the first shop in Bunyere on the Masaka-Mbarara Road. They collect rater about 4 times a day, for an approximate 80L/day. The family collects rainwater.
J: Two boys with 10L + 5 L arrives at 10:56, and leaves at 11:04. They live near Bunyere, which, according to Hien the water-carrier, is about 15 minutes' walk away.
K: An older man arrives at 11:04 from the north (right) with 20L + 10L, and heads for P2. He drinks water directly out of the jerry can. At 11:07, he goes to P1 to collect more water. He leaves at 11:10. According to Hien the water-carrier, this man is mad---having had too much marijuana---and lives at the nother end of Bunyere (about 30 minutes' walk). Hien claims that marijuana is a large problem in Ddegeya---many a young man near the Trading Centre consumes it (John later falsifies this statement). Later when Kevin comes to BH4 to fetch some water for the Biosand filter, this same man helps Kevin with filling the jerry cans.
L: At 11:23, a girl and a boy arrive with 2 x 5L.
Kevin's observations end here. In the afternoon, the same was done with the two ponds at BH1. Kevin arrived on site at 14:05 and stood by the ponds like an idiot for 1 hour, almost getting heat stroke. At 14:39, a man filled 20L half-full, and a woman filled 20L. At 14:42, the woman and the man left, going separate ways (the man goes through the fenced brick-making ground). At 14:47, a child shows up---but with no jerry can. He said that his family uses 2 jerry cans/day, and that the pond supports about 20 people---using both ponds. After the child left, someone was calling "mzungu" from the eucalyptus forest, somewhat eerily since Kevin could not see where the caller was (it turned out that he was on a tree---possibly collecting firewood). The rest of the observation period (until 15:05) passed without incident. On the way back passing by the brick-making facility, Kevin met Ronald the brick-maker. Apparently he makes clay bricks and builds firewood to fire up the bricks---these are charged 60 shillings apiece. This seems to be a very good contact for making/testing ceramic filters---Kevin later followed up on this with John and Joseph, who agrees to bring us to visit Ronald's household some time. According to Ronald, the two ponds just visited supports about 400 people, albeit that these are big families.
Kevin returned to the clinic and plated all the water samples on Petrifilm. Then at 15:59, he went down to Nalongo to repeat the traffic-counting. At this time, six people are present already:
E: A man with 4 x 20L leaves on bike at 16:13 to the south (right).
F: A girl with 2 x 10L leaves on foot at 16:13 to the south (right).
G: A girl with 20L leaves on foot at 16:12 to the south (right).
H: A boy with 10L leaves on foot at 16:13 to the south (right).
The following constitutes the remaining water traffic:
A: A woman with a bundle of grass and a girl with 3L arrives at 16:00 and leaves at 16:01 to the south (right).
B: A girl with 10L arrives at 16:03 from the right (south) and leaves at 16:11. She arrives again at 16:26 with 8L and leaves at 16:31.
C: A boy with 3L arrives at 16:04 and leaves at 16:13 to the south (right).
D: A man with 2 x 20L and a woman with 15L arrives by bike at 16:06 and leaves at 16:23. They use P1 to wash the jerry cans first before filling water from BH4. They live close to the mosque.
I: A girl with 10L arrives on foot at 16:13 from the right (south) and leaves at 16:25.
J: Mohammed arrives at 16:17 with 2 x 20L by bike and leaves at 16:23. He returns at 16:50 from the south (left) on bike with 2 x 20L.
K: A boy arrives from the north (left) at 16:20 on bike with 2 x 10L. He obtains water from P1 and leaves at 16:26.
L: A girl arrives with 2 x 5L at 16:26 and leaves at 16:31.
M: 2 boys arrives on bike at 16:24 with 20L from the south (left) and leaves at 16:31.
N: A girl arrives at 16:29 with 2 x 5L and leaves at 16:31.
O: 2 boys arrives on bike at 16:34 with 20L and leaves at 16:59 to the north (right).
P: A boy arrives on bike at 16:45 with 2 x 20L and leaves at 16:59 to the north (right). His family uses about 2 jerry cans/day.
Q: Arrives at 16:50 on bike with 20L and leaves at 16:59 to the north (right). Lives near St.. Timothy's Church (?).
R: Arrives at 16:50 from the south (left) with 5L. Lives in Bunyere.
S: Arrives at 16:51 from the south (left) with 2 x 20L on bike. Goes to P2 to fill up the two jerry cans, apparently used for agricultural purposes (e.g. spraying). Leaves at 16:57. Lives near the Trading Centre.
T: 2 girls and a boy arrive at 16:52 with 10L + 2 x 5L.
U: A woman arrives at 16:57, followed by a boy and a girl with 10L + 2 x 20L on bike.
V: A same boy with blue shirt arrives at 16:59 with 8L + 10L on bike.
W: An old woman arrives with 20L at 17:00 on foot. Observation ends here.
Kevin then visited BH6/P3 to conduct the same observation session. He also measured the turbidity of P3 (9-10 NTU) and BH6 (100-110 NTU).
17:38 - Observation starts. At this point, the pond has the same young man on bike with 20L + 10L, and 2 boys on bike with 20L + 10L.
17:42 - Young man leaves.
17:42 - 2 girls and a boy arrives with 10L + 3 x 5L. The family uses 6 jerry cans/day. They do not use BH due to dirty water. They do not collect rainwater.
17:49 - The same young man arrives on bike with 2 x 10L.
17:50 - A woman (Anne) with 2 children (Dominic and Wayne) arrive, pushing a wheelbarrow with 2 x 20L + 10L.
17:52 - The 2 boys leave. They live in the direction of Mbarara about 0.5 km away.
17:57 - The same young man leaves, for the final time.
17:59 - Anne, Dominic, and Wayne leave. They live about 5 minutes' walk away, and collect water once a day. They do not collect rainwater. One of the children has broken the wheelbarrow, hence the woman seems to have so much trouble pushing the wheelbarrow up. They do not use the BH because it is very old.
18:06 - The wheelbarrow topsides. Some water is lost. Dominic is ordered back to fetch another 10L.
18:08 - Anne, Dominic, and Wayne leave, asking Kevin to say hi to Francis at Engeye. Francis claims not to know this woman or the children.
18:02 - A girl (10L), and 2 boys (20L each) appear. They come from near the Trading Centre. The household collects rainwater, and needs about 7 jerry cans of water per day. Water is fetched twice daily. They do not use the BH due to bad water.
18:12 - The girl and 2 boys leave.
18:27 - A boy with 10L arrives. The family leaves near the Trading Centre (about 10 minutes' walk) and uses about 10 jerry cans / day, without rainwater collection. The BH water is bad.
18:34 - Running, a girl (10L) and 2 boys (10L each) appear. They live close to the Trading Centre on the Bunyere side of the road. The family requires about 2 trips per day.
18:35 - Another girl of the same family appears with 20L.
18:37 - Observation ends.
On his way back, Kevin encountered Anne, Dominic, and Wayne, still struggling with their wheelbarrow halfway up the hill. They seemed not to know to lift the wheelbarrow before pushing it. Kevin helped them and manages to get up the other half of the hill in 5 minutes. Then the final 2 girls and 2 boys requested that Kevin also help them carry water (10L). This was done to near their home on the Masaka-Mbarara Road.
At about 7 p.m., the drum was taken out, and the Ddegeya kids had a great time doing drums/dances/songs in front of a cheering audience. This was followed by a sumptious dinner consisting of many greens and pineapples, amongst other goodies. It is a pity that Mike and Dave, who were on their way back from Kampala, missed all these.
Mike and Dave returned at about 9 p.m., without the Plexiglas or solar cooker models. But they spent the whole day tracking down the pipes from Market St., to no avail. Then they got a taxi to the industrial park and argued with the people a little---the pipes came in units of 3 metres, while we requested 3.5 metres. They also brought some seals. This would hopefully fix BH1 and---less certainly---BH5!
Kevin set up two solar cooker configurations---the same as yesterday, except with black-painted pot and kettle, and a stronger sun. Unfortunately, at about 12:30, it started raining, and the solar cookers must be moved indoors. Both WAPIs failed to melt. The Biosand filter was tested this morning, and the flow rate was about 57 seconds per litre.
Then Kevin set out to BH6/P3 to keep track of the water traffic. During the one-hour observation window, here is a transcript of events. All water collection was done at P3---no one used BH6.
8:57 - Observation starts
9:06 - Two young girls and an older girl show up, with 20L + 10L + 5L. The little girl is afraid of mzungus.
9:06 - One young man shows up with 2 x 10L.
9:09 - The young man finishes fetching the water. He lives about 5 minutes' walk away (Kevin later saw him farming just at the intersection of the footpaths near BH5, on the right-hand side of the rich house in the direction of the Trading Centre). He fetches water here about 2-3 times per day, needing about 30L/day.
9:16 - The three girls finish fetching water. They live perhaps 1 km away. They come here twice a day, perhaps fetching 70L/day.
9:21 - The same young man appears again for his second water fetching, with 2 x 10L.
9:22 - Two girls appear, with 2 x 10L + 5 L. A minute later, another young girl eating 2 mangoes appear with 5L. These three girls play around with BH. They don't speak English. When asked where they live, they reply "Ddegeya". We chat until 9:26.
9:23 - The young man leaves.
9:30 - The three girls reappear. They might live near the Trading Centre. We chat until 9:48.
9:46 - A lady with baby and 20L appears. When fetching water, she chats with a man.
9:53 - The lady, the man, and the baby leaves. At the beginning of the footpath leading to BH6/P3, the lady turns left (towards Mbarara), and the man turns right (towards the Trading Centre).
9:57 - Observation ends.
Kevin collected water samples from BH6 and P3. Then he returned to the clinic, and headed to Nalongo to do the same observation. Due to the higher traffic here, the water-fetcher(s) are letter-labelled for clarity. Observation starts at 10:22, whence there were already 7 people there (though from the notes Kevin only has 5 people so he must have botched up a little on the record-keeping):
B: Hien Mugerwa the hired water-carrier. He carries 2 x 20L on bike and leaves at 10:25. He returns at 10:47 with another 2 x 20L and leaves at 11:01. His family uses about 4 jerry cans per day, and collects rainwater. He claims that the water traffic is low today, as many households are still consuming rainwater collected from the heavy rain 36 hours ago. Kevin explains to him that Mike and Dave are in Kampala in search of parts to fix BH5. He thinks that fixing this BH is a waste of time, as the water is too deep (we politely disagree on the point of the water level).
C: One young man with 4 x 20L on bike. He fetches water 2 times a day, and lives in Bunyere. He leaves at 10:32.
D: Two girls with 2 x 5L on foot. At 10:37, they leave in the southern direction (left).
G: One young man washing a large blanket in a transparent basin. He refills his basin at 10:35 and at 11:10. His name is Mohammed. He lives near the mosque at the Trading Centre. His house uses about 10 jerry cans of water per day, usually collected from P3. Today he comes here because washing blanket requires more water. He goes to school, but complains that he does not have enough money for pens and books. He also complains that his eyes are bad, but that he cannot afford glasses. He seems altogether too eager to talk to Kevin. After the observation ends, Kevin helps him wring the blanket dry, and then shows him the Biosand filter and the solar cookers at the clinic, together with the three girls mentioned in I below. Mohammed claims to have learnt about these technologies at school.
These people arrived later:
A: A girl and a boy arrive on bike with 20L + 10L at 10:23 from the south (left). They leave at 10:37 after having found some grass to stuff the opening of one of the jerry cans.
E: A young woman with 2 x 10L arrives on bike at 10:28 from the north (right), followed by a boy at 10:29. They live in Bunyere. Having picked up some grass to stuff the opening of one uncapped jerry can, they leave at 10:36.
F: One young man arrives at 10:35 on bike with 2 x 20L from the north (right). He lives near P3 but the water is bad---according to Hien the water-carrier. He leaves at 10:50.
H: One man arrives at 10:44 from the north (right) with 3 x 20L. His family lives in Bunyere near St. Timothy's school, and collects rainwater. He leaves at 10:57.
I: 3 girls arrive at 10:49 with 2 x 10L + 2 x 5L from the north (right), and leaves at 11:03. The family is located at the first shop in Bunyere on the Masaka-Mbarara Road. They collect rater about 4 times a day, for an approximate 80L/day. The family collects rainwater.
J: Two boys with 10L + 5 L arrives at 10:56, and leaves at 11:04. They live near Bunyere, which, according to Hien the water-carrier, is about 15 minutes' walk away.
K: An older man arrives at 11:04 from the north (right) with 20L + 10L, and heads for P2. He drinks water directly out of the jerry can. At 11:07, he goes to P1 to collect more water. He leaves at 11:10. According to Hien the water-carrier, this man is mad---having had too much marijuana---and lives at the nother end of Bunyere (about 30 minutes' walk). Hien claims that marijuana is a large problem in Ddegeya---many a young man near the Trading Centre consumes it (John later falsifies this statement). Later when Kevin comes to BH4 to fetch some water for the Biosand filter, this same man helps Kevin with filling the jerry cans.
L: At 11:23, a girl and a boy arrive with 2 x 5L.
Kevin's observations end here. In the afternoon, the same was done with the two ponds at BH1. Kevin arrived on site at 14:05 and stood by the ponds like an idiot for 1 hour, almost getting heat stroke. At 14:39, a man filled 20L half-full, and a woman filled 20L. At 14:42, the woman and the man left, going separate ways (the man goes through the fenced brick-making ground). At 14:47, a child shows up---but with no jerry can. He said that his family uses 2 jerry cans/day, and that the pond supports about 20 people---using both ponds. After the child left, someone was calling "mzungu" from the eucalyptus forest, somewhat eerily since Kevin could not see where the caller was (it turned out that he was on a tree---possibly collecting firewood). The rest of the observation period (until 15:05) passed without incident. On the way back passing by the brick-making facility, Kevin met Ronald the brick-maker. Apparently he makes clay bricks and builds firewood to fire up the bricks---these are charged 60 shillings apiece. This seems to be a very good contact for making/testing ceramic filters---Kevin later followed up on this with John and Joseph, who agrees to bring us to visit Ronald's household some time. According to Ronald, the two ponds just visited supports about 400 people, albeit that these are big families.
Kevin returned to the clinic and plated all the water samples on Petrifilm. Then at 15:59, he went down to Nalongo to repeat the traffic-counting. At this time, six people are present already:
E: A man with 4 x 20L leaves on bike at 16:13 to the south (right).
F: A girl with 2 x 10L leaves on foot at 16:13 to the south (right).
G: A girl with 20L leaves on foot at 16:12 to the south (right).
H: A boy with 10L leaves on foot at 16:13 to the south (right).
The following constitutes the remaining water traffic:
A: A woman with a bundle of grass and a girl with 3L arrives at 16:00 and leaves at 16:01 to the south (right).
B: A girl with 10L arrives at 16:03 from the right (south) and leaves at 16:11. She arrives again at 16:26 with 8L and leaves at 16:31.
C: A boy with 3L arrives at 16:04 and leaves at 16:13 to the south (right).
D: A man with 2 x 20L and a woman with 15L arrives by bike at 16:06 and leaves at 16:23. They use P1 to wash the jerry cans first before filling water from BH4. They live close to the mosque.
I: A girl with 10L arrives on foot at 16:13 from the right (south) and leaves at 16:25.
J: Mohammed arrives at 16:17 with 2 x 20L by bike and leaves at 16:23. He returns at 16:50 from the south (left) on bike with 2 x 20L.
K: A boy arrives from the north (left) at 16:20 on bike with 2 x 10L. He obtains water from P1 and leaves at 16:26.
L: A girl arrives with 2 x 5L at 16:26 and leaves at 16:31.
M: 2 boys arrives on bike at 16:24 with 20L from the south (left) and leaves at 16:31.
N: A girl arrives at 16:29 with 2 x 5L and leaves at 16:31.
O: 2 boys arrives on bike at 16:34 with 20L and leaves at 16:59 to the north (right).
P: A boy arrives on bike at 16:45 with 2 x 20L and leaves at 16:59 to the north (right). His family uses about 2 jerry cans/day.
Q: Arrives at 16:50 on bike with 20L and leaves at 16:59 to the north (right). Lives near St.. Timothy's Church (?).
R: Arrives at 16:50 from the south (left) with 5L. Lives in Bunyere.
S: Arrives at 16:51 from the south (left) with 2 x 20L on bike. Goes to P2 to fill up the two jerry cans, apparently used for agricultural purposes (e.g. spraying). Leaves at 16:57. Lives near the Trading Centre.
T: 2 girls and a boy arrive at 16:52 with 10L + 2 x 5L.
U: A woman arrives at 16:57, followed by a boy and a girl with 10L + 2 x 20L on bike.
V: A same boy with blue shirt arrives at 16:59 with 8L + 10L on bike.
W: An old woman arrives with 20L at 17:00 on foot. Observation ends here.
Kevin then visited BH6/P3 to conduct the same observation session. He also measured the turbidity of P3 (9-10 NTU) and BH6 (100-110 NTU).
17:38 - Observation starts. At this point, the pond has the same young man on bike with 20L + 10L, and 2 boys on bike with 20L + 10L.
17:42 - Young man leaves.
17:42 - 2 girls and a boy arrives with 10L + 3 x 5L. The family uses 6 jerry cans/day. They do not use BH due to dirty water. They do not collect rainwater.
17:49 - The same young man arrives on bike with 2 x 10L.
17:50 - A woman (Anne) with 2 children (Dominic and Wayne) arrive, pushing a wheelbarrow with 2 x 20L + 10L.
17:52 - The 2 boys leave. They live in the direction of Mbarara about 0.5 km away.
17:57 - The same young man leaves, for the final time.
17:59 - Anne, Dominic, and Wayne leave. They live about 5 minutes' walk away, and collect water once a day. They do not collect rainwater. One of the children has broken the wheelbarrow, hence the woman seems to have so much trouble pushing the wheelbarrow up. They do not use the BH because it is very old.
18:06 - The wheelbarrow topsides. Some water is lost. Dominic is ordered back to fetch another 10L.
18:08 - Anne, Dominic, and Wayne leave, asking Kevin to say hi to Francis at Engeye. Francis claims not to know this woman or the children.
18:02 - A girl (10L), and 2 boys (20L each) appear. They come from near the Trading Centre. The household collects rainwater, and needs about 7 jerry cans of water per day. Water is fetched twice daily. They do not use the BH due to bad water.
18:12 - The girl and 2 boys leave.
18:27 - A boy with 10L arrives. The family leaves near the Trading Centre (about 10 minutes' walk) and uses about 10 jerry cans / day, without rainwater collection. The BH water is bad.
18:34 - Running, a girl (10L) and 2 boys (10L each) appear. They live close to the Trading Centre on the Bunyere side of the road. The family requires about 2 trips per day.
18:35 - Another girl of the same family appears with 20L.
18:37 - Observation ends.
On his way back, Kevin encountered Anne, Dominic, and Wayne, still struggling with their wheelbarrow halfway up the hill. They seemed not to know to lift the wheelbarrow before pushing it. Kevin helped them and manages to get up the other half of the hill in 5 minutes. Then the final 2 girls and 2 boys requested that Kevin also help them carry water (10L). This was done to near their home on the Masaka-Mbarara Road.
At about 7 p.m., the drum was taken out, and the Ddegeya kids had a great time doing drums/dances/songs in front of a cheering audience. This was followed by a sumptious dinner consisting of many greens and pineapples, amongst other goodies. It is a pity that Mike and Dave, who were on their way back from Kampala, missed all these.
Mike and Dave returned at about 9 p.m., without the Plexiglas or solar cooker models. But they spent the whole day tracking down the pipes from Market St., to no avail. Then they got a taxi to the industrial park and argued with the people a little---the pipes came in units of 3 metres, while we requested 3.5 metres. They also brought some seals. This would hopefully fix BH1 and---less certainly---BH5!
January 20, 2010 - Ddegeya
The clinic received 108 patients yesterday. Today has been equally busy, with the screams of babies being tortured. The notable point is that a boy came in with some 4-cm wood splinter in his leg. Apparently, 3 months ago, he was attached by a cow and fell onto some wood. The splinter had stayed in his body for all this time. The doctors applied some local anaesthetic to remove the splinter, and the boy reportedly did not flinch. Probably this is not his worst experience.
This morning, we set up two solar cookers again, one with the aluminium box made yesterday as the inner box (containing the kettle), and one with a traditional cardboard box as the inner box (containing the pot). The outer boxes are the same in both case. However, Kevin clumsily broke one of the framed glass, and we therefore did not use any seal for the aluminium box (but covered the outside with the transluscent sheet bought yesterday). For the other prototype, the inner box was covered with an unframed piece of glass, and the outer box, initially none, but later when the heat was not enough, the transluscent sheet (which appeared to improve the performance). The day was sunny and cloudy on and off, and by 1:30 p.m., the sky turned permenantly cloudy, and the WAPIs had not melted. So we called the day to the experiments. Tomorrow we will paint the kettle and the pot black and repeat, hopefully with stronger sunlight.
Happily, the bucket from yesterday did not seem to have made any leaks, so we washed the larger gravel and the smaller gravel to put into the bucket. The fine sand needed many more washes, as the wastewater continued to be cloudy/yellowish. At the end, we still didn't think that our sand was clean, as it was impossible to reach the depths of the bucket. Overall, we had 11 cm of large/small gravel, and about 20 cm of fine sand on top. We filled the sand slowly into the water in order to ensure that no bubbles were trapped. Seeing that we still had some headspace at the top after the sand had been lain, we decided to use a larger bucket as the diffuser plate (in lieu of the smaller, less deep blue bucket). The thing is that with the larger bucket, the standing water level will actually be above the bottom of this bucket, but we do not think that this will affect the oxygen supply of the biological layer too much, and this makes pouring easier (e.g. the user does not have to aim specifically into the smaller bucket). It was afternoon when everything was completed, and we started pouring water into the bucket. Over the afternoon, Kevin must have hauled over 200 L of water from BH4. Our greatest concern is that because we really do not have coarse sand but rather small gravel, the sand would pass through the pores and come out into the efflux, resulting in a constant loss of sand and a cloudy efflux that would not clear. Initially, the efflux was cloudy, as expected. However, probably because we washed the sand quite thoroughly, the efflux quickly cleared. By the first 20 L, the turbidity dropped to below 10 NTU, and after about 60 L, it was below what is measurable using the turbidity tube (< 5 NTU). The flow rate, we found, is dependent on the water level. When the bucket was completely filled, 1 L of water took about 53-57 seconds; when the water level was about halfway to the standing level, filling 1 L could take 64-77 seconds. But this is within reasonable flow rate of Biosand filter. We just hope that this does not get clogged up too soon, which can dramatically drop the flow rate. We plan to test this prototype for one or two more days, before passing the ownership to Joseph. Joseph initially watched and helped a little with the assembly of the sand filter this morning, but then he was called away to accompany someone to Entebbe to pick up some delayed luggage. We will make sure to quiz Joseph to make sure he understands the details of the workings of the Biosand filter.
We pretty much exhausted the majority of our washed sand in building the first Biosand filter prototype. We do not have a lot of sifted sand to wash with (and sifting more fine sand will take an enormous amount of time). Kevin has attempted to wash the coarse sand pile---while this sand is supposedly mixed with the undesirable clay/mud particles too small to be separated by hand, Kevin has so far observed reasonable results in the number of washes for a certain amount of coarse sand to clear. If this goes well, we might start a coarse sand layer in the second prototype.
While Kevin was doing most of the Biosand filter tests, Mike and Dave made 3 trips to BH5. Equipped with new tools they managed to disconnect the pumping chain from the metal rod and, after much heaving, pull a total of 17 three meter sections of metal rod from the riser pipe until the pump valve appeared. As this was a Mark 3 pump this was possible without also removing the riser pipe - something which was then attempted but found to be an impossible task without the use of a rig. The riser pipe appeared to be wet from only around 10 meters depth. The valve seal was also torn, but without being able to remove and inspect the riser pipe it is impossible to tell whether the valve was the sole problem causing the pump not to function. After much straining Mike and Dave managed to replace the 40+ meters of pipe (minus the broken valve) and headed to bore hole 1 to check the depth of the bore hole with an ingenius tape-measure-with-hammer-attached-device to check whether a longer pipe could be used to replace the rusted 10 ft one removed the previous day. They found the bore hole depth to be around 14 ft, making the 10 ft pipe removed around the optimum length for the bore.
This morning, we set up two solar cookers again, one with the aluminium box made yesterday as the inner box (containing the kettle), and one with a traditional cardboard box as the inner box (containing the pot). The outer boxes are the same in both case. However, Kevin clumsily broke one of the framed glass, and we therefore did not use any seal for the aluminium box (but covered the outside with the transluscent sheet bought yesterday). For the other prototype, the inner box was covered with an unframed piece of glass, and the outer box, initially none, but later when the heat was not enough, the transluscent sheet (which appeared to improve the performance). The day was sunny and cloudy on and off, and by 1:30 p.m., the sky turned permenantly cloudy, and the WAPIs had not melted. So we called the day to the experiments. Tomorrow we will paint the kettle and the pot black and repeat, hopefully with stronger sunlight.
Happily, the bucket from yesterday did not seem to have made any leaks, so we washed the larger gravel and the smaller gravel to put into the bucket. The fine sand needed many more washes, as the wastewater continued to be cloudy/yellowish. At the end, we still didn't think that our sand was clean, as it was impossible to reach the depths of the bucket. Overall, we had 11 cm of large/small gravel, and about 20 cm of fine sand on top. We filled the sand slowly into the water in order to ensure that no bubbles were trapped. Seeing that we still had some headspace at the top after the sand had been lain, we decided to use a larger bucket as the diffuser plate (in lieu of the smaller, less deep blue bucket). The thing is that with the larger bucket, the standing water level will actually be above the bottom of this bucket, but we do not think that this will affect the oxygen supply of the biological layer too much, and this makes pouring easier (e.g. the user does not have to aim specifically into the smaller bucket). It was afternoon when everything was completed, and we started pouring water into the bucket. Over the afternoon, Kevin must have hauled over 200 L of water from BH4. Our greatest concern is that because we really do not have coarse sand but rather small gravel, the sand would pass through the pores and come out into the efflux, resulting in a constant loss of sand and a cloudy efflux that would not clear. Initially, the efflux was cloudy, as expected. However, probably because we washed the sand quite thoroughly, the efflux quickly cleared. By the first 20 L, the turbidity dropped to below 10 NTU, and after about 60 L, it was below what is measurable using the turbidity tube (< 5 NTU). The flow rate, we found, is dependent on the water level. When the bucket was completely filled, 1 L of water took about 53-57 seconds; when the water level was about halfway to the standing level, filling 1 L could take 64-77 seconds. But this is within reasonable flow rate of Biosand filter. We just hope that this does not get clogged up too soon, which can dramatically drop the flow rate. We plan to test this prototype for one or two more days, before passing the ownership to Joseph. Joseph initially watched and helped a little with the assembly of the sand filter this morning, but then he was called away to accompany someone to Entebbe to pick up some delayed luggage. We will make sure to quiz Joseph to make sure he understands the details of the workings of the Biosand filter.
We pretty much exhausted the majority of our washed sand in building the first Biosand filter prototype. We do not have a lot of sifted sand to wash with (and sifting more fine sand will take an enormous amount of time). Kevin has attempted to wash the coarse sand pile---while this sand is supposedly mixed with the undesirable clay/mud particles too small to be separated by hand, Kevin has so far observed reasonable results in the number of washes for a certain amount of coarse sand to clear. If this goes well, we might start a coarse sand layer in the second prototype.
While Kevin was doing most of the Biosand filter tests, Mike and Dave made 3 trips to BH5. Equipped with new tools they managed to disconnect the pumping chain from the metal rod and, after much heaving, pull a total of 17 three meter sections of metal rod from the riser pipe until the pump valve appeared. As this was a Mark 3 pump this was possible without also removing the riser pipe - something which was then attempted but found to be an impossible task without the use of a rig. The riser pipe appeared to be wet from only around 10 meters depth. The valve seal was also torn, but without being able to remove and inspect the riser pipe it is impossible to tell whether the valve was the sole problem causing the pump not to function. After much straining Mike and Dave managed to replace the 40+ meters of pipe (minus the broken valve) and headed to bore hole 1 to check the depth of the bore hole with an ingenius tape-measure-with-hammer-attached-device to check whether a longer pipe could be used to replace the rusted 10 ft one removed the previous day. They found the bore hole depth to be around 14 ft, making the 10 ft pipe removed around the optimum length for the bore.
January 19, 2010 - Masaka/Ddegeya
This morning, we set up two solar cookers, one with the same inner-outer box configuration as yesterday except that the inner box was not insulated with a plastic wrap and contained a 5 L black-painted jerry can instead of a 1.5 L black-painted Rwenzori plastic bottle. The other one was with the same single box configuration as yesterday except that the box contained a 1.5 L b black-painted Rwenzori plastic bottle instead of the 5 L black-painted jerry can. The intention is to stress-test the stronger solar cooker (the double layered one) to see if it can pasteurise 5 L of water, even with the inner box non-insulated. We also want to test if the weaker solar cooker (the single box configuration) may be able to handle smaller volume of water. The test was null in both case: by 1:45 p.m. when things turned cloudy, the WAPIs in both containers failed to melt.
Today was the first day that the Albany medical team is operating in the clinic, and in the morning the line of patients was so long that it wrapped around the clinic.
We first did some Petrifilm tests of the solar cooker that failed to melt WAPI (no counts), samples from the household drinking/rain water, and from all active water sources in Ddegeya. At about 9:00 a.m., we set out for Masaka to get the following items:
- 3 jugs of water for the clinic
- 100 plastic cups for the clinic
- putty glue, silicon glue, teflon tape, rubber o-rings, and 1 m of rope (as much stuff as we need to prevent the water from leaking in the bucket)
- metal wire (for holding up the solar cooker reflector)
- transluscent sheets and framed glass for the solar cooker insulating cover
- one kettle and pot (anything that doesn't melt easily on a solar cooker)
We were back to the clinic with our stuff by 1:00 p.m. Then we started putting together the sand filter bucket with rubber o-rings (with plastic bag between the threads), with the help of Richard. After two leaky attempts, we decided to turn up the notch and use Teflon tape between the threads. This time the pipe seems to be holding up---at least 4 hours after, the nearly full bucket is still not showing any leaks. We added some silicon glue to the joints and left the setup until tomorrow.
Mike brought the BH part to a shop in Ddegeya Trading Centre to see if it is possible to loose some parts. This was unsuccessful, and since he was unsuccessful at getting the right BH pipes in Masaka today, he is thinking of making a trip to Kampala. We e-mailed Michael Thornton and he gave us some useful hints about where to look in Kampala. The plan might be to pull up another BH (BH5) to see if this is fixable, and if so, have Mike make another trip to Kampala before this week ends.
At this time, there was an extremely heavy downpour. Kevin was washing some sand at BH4 and got caught. He then proceeded to use rainwater in the clinic to wash some more. Mike's situation was even more gruesome as he was walking back from the Trading Centre.
After the rain stopped, there was barely any traffic at BH4, so Kevin went to wash three more batches of sand (which took about 2 hours). Mike and Dave put together an inner box consisting entirely of a shiny metal sheet that they found in Masaka on the trip before today. Then this metal box was painted black on the outside.
Though we bought some framed glass intending to use as the insulating covering of specific boxes, we found that Kevin's tape measure didn't give inches, but a wierd unit of 3.3 cm. This messed up all the dimensions, and all the framed glass turned out to be too small. We started making larger wooden frames for the glass, but did not finish as we wanted to test the performance of the transluscent sheet first.
Today was the first day that the Albany medical team is operating in the clinic, and in the morning the line of patients was so long that it wrapped around the clinic.
We first did some Petrifilm tests of the solar cooker that failed to melt WAPI (no counts), samples from the household drinking/rain water, and from all active water sources in Ddegeya. At about 9:00 a.m., we set out for Masaka to get the following items:
- 3 jugs of water for the clinic
- 100 plastic cups for the clinic
- putty glue, silicon glue, teflon tape, rubber o-rings, and 1 m of rope (as much stuff as we need to prevent the water from leaking in the bucket)
- metal wire (for holding up the solar cooker reflector)
- transluscent sheets and framed glass for the solar cooker insulating cover
- one kettle and pot (anything that doesn't melt easily on a solar cooker)
We were back to the clinic with our stuff by 1:00 p.m. Then we started putting together the sand filter bucket with rubber o-rings (with plastic bag between the threads), with the help of Richard. After two leaky attempts, we decided to turn up the notch and use Teflon tape between the threads. This time the pipe seems to be holding up---at least 4 hours after, the nearly full bucket is still not showing any leaks. We added some silicon glue to the joints and left the setup until tomorrow.
Mike brought the BH part to a shop in Ddegeya Trading Centre to see if it is possible to loose some parts. This was unsuccessful, and since he was unsuccessful at getting the right BH pipes in Masaka today, he is thinking of making a trip to Kampala. We e-mailed Michael Thornton and he gave us some useful hints about where to look in Kampala. The plan might be to pull up another BH (BH5) to see if this is fixable, and if so, have Mike make another trip to Kampala before this week ends.
At this time, there was an extremely heavy downpour. Kevin was washing some sand at BH4 and got caught. He then proceeded to use rainwater in the clinic to wash some more. Mike's situation was even more gruesome as he was walking back from the Trading Centre.
After the rain stopped, there was barely any traffic at BH4, so Kevin went to wash three more batches of sand (which took about 2 hours). Mike and Dave put together an inner box consisting entirely of a shiny metal sheet that they found in Masaka on the trip before today. Then this metal box was painted black on the outside.
Though we bought some framed glass intending to use as the insulating covering of specific boxes, we found that Kevin's tape measure didn't give inches, but a wierd unit of 3.3 cm. This messed up all the dimensions, and all the framed glass turned out to be too small. We started making larger wooden frames for the glass, but did not finish as we wanted to test the performance of the transluscent sheet first.
January 18, 2010 - Ddegeya
Starting at about 7:30 a.m. this morning, we started setting up the solar cookers. This process lasted until 10 a.m. or so, by which time we had 3 prototypes set up---two with an inner-outer box design, and one with a single-box design. Due to the shallowness of the inner box, we had no choice but to put in black-painted plastic Rwenzori water bottles (1.5 L of water) into those designs with an inner-outer box configuration. In fact, we had some jerry cans which were flat enough, but most of them did not have caps. Dave got one can with a cap, but it turned out that this one leaked. For the single-box design, we still inserted a black-painted jerry can, standing upright and sealed at the top with a plastic wrap.
In the morning, the clinic was busy moving in preparation for the medical team, which is scheduled to arrive this afternoon. We also spent a lot of time moving our belongings to an adjacent building, and washing up in the calm before the storm. At about 2:30 p.m., the medical team came with John and lots of luggage. We had a chance to meet these medical students and doctors, and had a late lunch at 3:30 p.m.
To backtrack, by about 12:30 p.m., something was happening to the two solar cooker prototypes with the inner-outer box design. One was leaking water, and the other had its plastic bottle deformed. We took these out to figure out what was going on. In both plastic bottles, the WAPIs had already melted and sunk to the bottom. The water was too hot to touch, and assuredly pasteurised. We were quite amazed at the increase in cooking power with the inner-outer box design. However, this prototype turned out to be too powerful for use on ordinary plastic bottles (or, we suspect, even the thicker plastic jerry cans that people usually use). To do this properly, we need another container (e.g. glass) with a much higher melting point. Also, we felt that our prototypes were not yet ready to demonstrate to the households---the cardboard boxes seemed quite indurable, and in fact the glued aluminium foil already became quite crimpled after one use. Therefore, we decided not to proceed with the workshops this afternoon. While Joseph will become unavailable after today, we will try to arrange things with another translator, such as Francis.
Afternoon, Mike, Dave, Monica, and Francis went to visit BH1 to see if it could be taken apart. They were not able to remove the rod from the chain yoke (the chain was intact), so they pulled the entire assmebly out of the borehole with the head assembly still attached. Fortunately, the pump was fairly shallow - the centerpipe measured only 348cm long - and no one was hurt. The reason that the pump was not delivering water was quickly apparent: they had installed electrical conduit for the centerpipe! The conduit had split along the welded seam, where the water leaked out befor it could reach the top. We intend to buy a new senction of seamless pipe (sched 40?) to replace the conduit, and are confident that the borehole will produce water when it is reassembled! We also sent out an email to Michael Thornton, who may have had more information regarding where to get the borehole parts.
In the meanwhile, Kevin stayed on the clinic and tried to wash some tubes in preparation for assembling the first Biosand filter prototype. Forgot to mention---yesterday Dave and Mike were unable to get putty glue for the leaky bucket, so we decided to take the entire piping system out, and to replace that with the threaded pipes/elbows obtained in Masaka. But before we can do this, we need to wash the pipes. We then tried to put together the pipes, with a washer in the bucket interior, and a plastic elbow on the outside, but after two attempts, we found the bucket to be leaking at the bottom, which is fatal for a Biosand filter. This necessitates another trip to Masaka tomorrow to find supplies such as putty glue and/or rubber o-rings.
Before sundown, we went to BH5 to see if we could disassemble it. We encountered a stubbornly tight rod between the handle and the chain. We were unable to reach into the nut connecting the chain to loosen it because we did not bring an extra socket wrench. We will give it another try another day.
Chris Arsenault (who works on borehole/water systems in Kenya and Sudan) contacted Kevin today and said that he would be capable of meeting us in Ddegeya. Kevin checked with John and it would be fine for the clinic to accommodate him. Right now we are waiting to hear back from Chris as to whether or not he would like to come, or if he would like to remotely communicate regarding our borehole work.
In the morning, the clinic was busy moving in preparation for the medical team, which is scheduled to arrive this afternoon. We also spent a lot of time moving our belongings to an adjacent building, and washing up in the calm before the storm. At about 2:30 p.m., the medical team came with John and lots of luggage. We had a chance to meet these medical students and doctors, and had a late lunch at 3:30 p.m.
To backtrack, by about 12:30 p.m., something was happening to the two solar cooker prototypes with the inner-outer box design. One was leaking water, and the other had its plastic bottle deformed. We took these out to figure out what was going on. In both plastic bottles, the WAPIs had already melted and sunk to the bottom. The water was too hot to touch, and assuredly pasteurised. We were quite amazed at the increase in cooking power with the inner-outer box design. However, this prototype turned out to be too powerful for use on ordinary plastic bottles (or, we suspect, even the thicker plastic jerry cans that people usually use). To do this properly, we need another container (e.g. glass) with a much higher melting point. Also, we felt that our prototypes were not yet ready to demonstrate to the households---the cardboard boxes seemed quite indurable, and in fact the glued aluminium foil already became quite crimpled after one use. Therefore, we decided not to proceed with the workshops this afternoon. While Joseph will become unavailable after today, we will try to arrange things with another translator, such as Francis.
Afternoon, Mike, Dave, Monica, and Francis went to visit BH1 to see if it could be taken apart. They were not able to remove the rod from the chain yoke (the chain was intact), so they pulled the entire assmebly out of the borehole with the head assembly still attached. Fortunately, the pump was fairly shallow - the centerpipe measured only 348cm long - and no one was hurt. The reason that the pump was not delivering water was quickly apparent: they had installed electrical conduit for the centerpipe! The conduit had split along the welded seam, where the water leaked out befor it could reach the top. We intend to buy a new senction of seamless pipe (sched 40?) to replace the conduit, and are confident that the borehole will produce water when it is reassembled! We also sent out an email to Michael Thornton, who may have had more information regarding where to get the borehole parts.
In the meanwhile, Kevin stayed on the clinic and tried to wash some tubes in preparation for assembling the first Biosand filter prototype. Forgot to mention---yesterday Dave and Mike were unable to get putty glue for the leaky bucket, so we decided to take the entire piping system out, and to replace that with the threaded pipes/elbows obtained in Masaka. But before we can do this, we need to wash the pipes. We then tried to put together the pipes, with a washer in the bucket interior, and a plastic elbow on the outside, but after two attempts, we found the bucket to be leaking at the bottom, which is fatal for a Biosand filter. This necessitates another trip to Masaka tomorrow to find supplies such as putty glue and/or rubber o-rings.
Before sundown, we went to BH5 to see if we could disassemble it. We encountered a stubbornly tight rod between the handle and the chain. We were unable to reach into the nut connecting the chain to loosen it because we did not bring an extra socket wrench. We will give it another try another day.
Chris Arsenault (who works on borehole/water systems in Kenya and Sudan) contacted Kevin today and said that he would be capable of meeting us in Ddegeya. Kevin checked with John and it would be fine for the clinic to accommodate him. Right now we are waiting to hear back from Chris as to whether or not he would like to come, or if he would like to remotely communicate regarding our borehole work.
January 17, 2010 - Ddegeya
In the morning, we set up a makeshift solar cooker with a WAPI inserted at 9:00 a.m. We also inserted WAPIs into a large and a small SODIS bottles and put these onto the roof, just as a control. Mike suggested flattening out the cardboard box and then pasting aluminium foil to its interior (we so far had been taping aluminium foil, which became very ruffled in the process). This was the way Mike saw done in Solar Connections Association. We attempted this on half a cardboard box before we ran out of glue, unfortunately, so this method was not tested today (we needed to get more glue from Masaka).
Kevin went to all the water sources in Ddegeya (BH4, P1, P2, the two ponds beside BH1, BH6, and P3) and took water samples from these. These were subsequently plated on Petrifilm for microbial analysis. In the meanwhile, Dave and Mike were going to wash more sand, but Joseph and Eddie dropped by. Eddie had agreed to be a test household for the slow sand filter, so Dave and Mike showed them the steps in sifting and then washing sand.
Near noon, Dave and Mike went to Masaka to get more supplies---namely, some water-based glue for gluing aluminium foil onto cardboard boxes, some more friendly black paint, a paint brush, and some grocery supplies that the clinic requested. Dave and Mike were unable to obtain putty glue or some transparent cover (e.g. glass or Plexiglas) for the solar cooker. In the meanwhile, Kevin spent entire afternoon sifting sand from the fine/intermediate-sized pile in order to just get the finest sand for washing, with the immense help of some children.
Now about the solar cooker. For most of the time, the black-painted container felt very hot to touch, and when the water was removed, one could only hold his finger in the water for about 2-3 seconds, suggesting that the water temperature was at least 60 C. We plated water from the solar cooker on coliform and enterobacteria Petrifilms and will see the results in two days.
Unfortunately, the solar cooker did not have a favourable result in terms of WAPI. The WAPI tube was checked at about 12:30 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 4:15 p.m. (finish time for the solar cooker test), and the wax therein failed to melt (melting indicates pasteurization). We are not sure if this null result is due to our makeshift setup (with all crumpled aluminium foil), due to too ambitious amount of water (5 L in a small jerry can), or due to an occasionally cloudy day.
This disappointing WAPI result suggests that we should redesign our solar cookers a bit. So far we are limited by material. The cardboard boxes at our disposal have been difficult to make into an inner and an outer box typically required for a solar cooker. So this is why we started with a single-box configuration, in which the interior is lined with aluminium foil. Late in the afternoon, Kevin designed a setup in which an inner-outer box configuration is possible, with the material constraint that the inner box is way shallower than the outer box (and we did not really want to cut up the outer box before a design is finalised). The flaps of the outer box were turned inward, and some pieces of cardboard of the right size were wedged against the flaps, forming a support on which the much shallower inner box. The flaps, and much of the interiors of the inner and outer boxes were lined with aluminium foil (the inner box was cut open to glue the aluminium foil properly, but the outer box was not so important in terms of crimpled aluminium foil). Our only reservation is that the inner box might be too small to be very effective, but so far we have no other choices of inner boxes.
Tomorrow we also plan to test the original one-box configuration, but with the aluminium foil glued properly (instead of taped in an ad hoc manner). We just hope that the weather tomorrow will be fair. In the morning, we set up a makeshift solar cooker with a WAPI inserted at 9:00 a.m. We also inserted WAPIs into a large and a small SODIS bottles and put these onto the roof, just as a control. Mike suggested flattening out the cardboard box and then pasting aluminium foil to its interior (we so far had been taping aluminium foil, which became very ruffled in the process). This was the way Mike saw done in Solar Connections Association. We attempted this on half a cardboard box before we ran out of glue, unfortunately, so this method was not tested today (we needed to get more glue from Masaka).
Kevin went to all the water sources in Ddegeya (BH4, P1, P2, the two ponds beside BH1, BH6, and P3) and took water samples from these. These were subsequently plated on Petrifilm for microbial analysis. In the meanwhile, Dave and Mike were going to wash more sand, but Joseph and Eddie dropped by. Eddie had agreed to be a test household for the slow sand filter, so Dave and Mike showed them the steps in sifting and then washing sand.
Near noon, Dave and Mike went to Masaka to get more supplies---namely, some water-based glue for gluing aluminium foil onto cardboard boxes, some more friendly black paint, a paint brush, and some grocery supplies that the clinic requested. Dave and Mike were unable to obtain putty glue or some transparent cover (e.g. glass or Plexiglas) for the solar cooker. In the meanwhile, Kevin spent entire afternoon sifting sand from the fine/intermediate-sized pile in order to just get the finest sand for washing, with the immense help of some children.
Now about the solar cooker. For most of the time, the black-painted container felt very hot to touch, and when the water was removed, one could only hold his finger in the water for about 2-3 seconds, suggesting that the water temperature was at least 60 C. We plated water from the solar cooker on coliform and enterobacteria Petrifilms and will see the results in two days.
Unfortunately, the solar cooker did not have a favourable result in terms of WAPI. The WAPI tube was checked at about 12:30 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 4:15 p.m. (finish time for the solar cooker test), and the wax therein failed to melt (melting indicates pasteurization). We are not sure if this null result is due to our makeshift setup (with all crumpled aluminium foil), due to too ambitious amount of water (5 L in a small jerry can), or due to an occasionally cloudy day.
This disappointing WAPI result suggests that we should redesign our solar cookers a bit. So far we are limited by material. The cardboard boxes at our disposal have been difficult to make into an inner and an outer box typically required for a solar cooker. So this is why we started with a single-box configuration, in which the interior is lined with aluminium foil. Late in the afternoon, Kevin designed a setup in which an inner-outer box configuration is possible, with the material constraint that the inner box is way shallower than the outer box (and we did not really want to cut up the outer box before a design is finalised). The flaps of the outer box were turned inward, and some pieces of cardboard of the right size were wedged against the flaps, forming a support on which the much shallower inner box. The flaps, and much of the interiors of the inner and outer boxes were lined with aluminium foil (the inner box was cut open to glue the aluminium foil properly, but the outer box was not so important in terms of crimpled aluminium foil). Our only reservation is that the inner box might be too small to be very effective, but so far we have no other choices of inner boxes.
Tomorrow we also plan to test the original one-box configuration, but with the aluminium foil glued properly (instead of taped in an ad hoc manner). We just hope that the weather tomorrow will be fair. In the morning, we set up a makeshift solar cooker with a WAPI inserted at 9:00 a.m. We also inserted WAPIs into a large and a small SODIS bottles and put these onto the roof, just as a control. Mike suggested flattening out the cardboard box and then pasting aluminium foil to its interior (we so far had been taping aluminium foil, which became very ruffled in the process). This was the way Mike saw done in Solar Connections Association. We attempted this on half a cardboard box before we ran out of glue, unfortunately, so this method was not tested today (we needed to get more glue from Masaka).
Kevin went to all the water sources in Ddegeya (BH4, P1, P2, the two ponds beside BH1, BH6, and P3) and took water samples from these. These were subsequently plated on Petrifilm for microbial analysis. In the meanwhile, Dave and Mike were going to wash more sand, but Joseph and Eddie dropped by. Eddie had agreed to be a test household for the slow sand filter, so Dave and Mike showed them the steps in sifting and then washing sand.
Near noon, Dave and Mike went to Masaka to get more supplies---namely, some water-based glue for gluing aluminium foil onto cardboard boxes, some more friendly black paint, a paint brush, and some grocery supplies that the clinic requested. Dave and Mike were unable to obtain putty glue or some transparent cover (e.g. glass or Plexiglas) for the solar cooker. In the meanwhile, Kevin spent entire afternoon sifting sand from the fine/intermediate-sized pile in order to just get the finest sand for washing, with the immense help of some children.
Now about the solar cooker. For most of the time, the black-painted container felt very hot to touch, and when the water was removed, one could only hold his finger in the water for about 2-3 seconds, suggesting that the water temperature was at least 60 C. We plated water from the solar cooker on coliform and enterobacteria Petrifilms and will see the results in two days.
Unfortunately, the solar cooker did not have a favourable result in terms of WAPI. The WAPI tube was checked at about 12:30 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 4:15 p.m. (finish time for the solar cooker test), and the wax therein failed to melt (melting indicates pasteurization). We are not sure if this null result is due to our makeshift setup (with all crumpled aluminium foil), due to too ambitious amount of water (5 L in a small jerry can), or due to an occasionally cloudy day. Incidentally, just after taking off the water and finding out that the WAPI failed to melt, Kevin threw in a second WAPI. This one melted a little, yielding some powder at the bottom of the WAPI tube. We are currently not sure what this means. As expected, the WAPIs in the SODIS bottles did not do anything interesting.
This disappointing WAPI result suggests that we should redesign our solar cookers a bit. So far we are limited by material. The cardboard boxes at our disposal have been difficult to make into an inner and an outer box typically required for a solar cooker. So this is why we started with a single-box configuration, in which the interior is lined with aluminium foil. Late in the afternoon, Kevin designed a setup in which an inner-outer box configuration is possible, with the material constraint that the inner box is way shallower than the outer box (and we did not really want to cut up the outer box before a design is finalised). The flaps of the outer box were turned inward, and some pieces of cardboard of the right size were wedged against the flaps, forming a support on which the much shallower inner box. The flaps, and much of the interiors of the inner and outer boxes were lined with aluminium foil (the inner box was cut open to glue the aluminium foil properly, but the outer box was not so important in terms of crimpled aluminium foil). Our only reservation is that the inner box might be too small to be very effective, but so far we have no other choices of inner boxes.
Tomorrow we also plan to test the original one-box configuration, but with the aluminium foil glued properly (instead of taped in an ad hoc manner). We just hope that the weather tomorrow will be fair. Any other suggestions for making the solar cooker behave more efficiently?
Kevin went to all the water sources in Ddegeya (BH4, P1, P2, the two ponds beside BH1, BH6, and P3) and took water samples from these. These were subsequently plated on Petrifilm for microbial analysis. In the meanwhile, Dave and Mike were going to wash more sand, but Joseph and Eddie dropped by. Eddie had agreed to be a test household for the slow sand filter, so Dave and Mike showed them the steps in sifting and then washing sand.
Near noon, Dave and Mike went to Masaka to get more supplies---namely, some water-based glue for gluing aluminium foil onto cardboard boxes, some more friendly black paint, a paint brush, and some grocery supplies that the clinic requested. Dave and Mike were unable to obtain putty glue or some transparent cover (e.g. glass or Plexiglas) for the solar cooker. In the meanwhile, Kevin spent entire afternoon sifting sand from the fine/intermediate-sized pile in order to just get the finest sand for washing, with the immense help of some children.
Now about the solar cooker. For most of the time, the black-painted container felt very hot to touch, and when the water was removed, one could only hold his finger in the water for about 2-3 seconds, suggesting that the water temperature was at least 60 C. We plated water from the solar cooker on coliform and enterobacteria Petrifilms and will see the results in two days.
Unfortunately, the solar cooker did not have a favourable result in terms of WAPI. The WAPI tube was checked at about 12:30 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 4:15 p.m. (finish time for the solar cooker test), and the wax therein failed to melt (melting indicates pasteurization). We are not sure if this null result is due to our makeshift setup (with all crumpled aluminium foil), due to too ambitious amount of water (5 L in a small jerry can), or due to an occasionally cloudy day.
This disappointing WAPI result suggests that we should redesign our solar cookers a bit. So far we are limited by material. The cardboard boxes at our disposal have been difficult to make into an inner and an outer box typically required for a solar cooker. So this is why we started with a single-box configuration, in which the interior is lined with aluminium foil. Late in the afternoon, Kevin designed a setup in which an inner-outer box configuration is possible, with the material constraint that the inner box is way shallower than the outer box (and we did not really want to cut up the outer box before a design is finalised). The flaps of the outer box were turned inward, and some pieces of cardboard of the right size were wedged against the flaps, forming a support on which the much shallower inner box. The flaps, and much of the interiors of the inner and outer boxes were lined with aluminium foil (the inner box was cut open to glue the aluminium foil properly, but the outer box was not so important in terms of crimpled aluminium foil). Our only reservation is that the inner box might be too small to be very effective, but so far we have no other choices of inner boxes.
Tomorrow we also plan to test the original one-box configuration, but with the aluminium foil glued properly (instead of taped in an ad hoc manner). We just hope that the weather tomorrow will be fair. In the morning, we set up a makeshift solar cooker with a WAPI inserted at 9:00 a.m. We also inserted WAPIs into a large and a small SODIS bottles and put these onto the roof, just as a control. Mike suggested flattening out the cardboard box and then pasting aluminium foil to its interior (we so far had been taping aluminium foil, which became very ruffled in the process). This was the way Mike saw done in Solar Connections Association. We attempted this on half a cardboard box before we ran out of glue, unfortunately, so this method was not tested today (we needed to get more glue from Masaka).
Kevin went to all the water sources in Ddegeya (BH4, P1, P2, the two ponds beside BH1, BH6, and P3) and took water samples from these. These were subsequently plated on Petrifilm for microbial analysis. In the meanwhile, Dave and Mike were going to wash more sand, but Joseph and Eddie dropped by. Eddie had agreed to be a test household for the slow sand filter, so Dave and Mike showed them the steps in sifting and then washing sand.
Near noon, Dave and Mike went to Masaka to get more supplies---namely, some water-based glue for gluing aluminium foil onto cardboard boxes, some more friendly black paint, a paint brush, and some grocery supplies that the clinic requested. Dave and Mike were unable to obtain putty glue or some transparent cover (e.g. glass or Plexiglas) for the solar cooker. In the meanwhile, Kevin spent entire afternoon sifting sand from the fine/intermediate-sized pile in order to just get the finest sand for washing, with the immense help of some children.
Now about the solar cooker. For most of the time, the black-painted container felt very hot to touch, and when the water was removed, one could only hold his finger in the water for about 2-3 seconds, suggesting that the water temperature was at least 60 C. We plated water from the solar cooker on coliform and enterobacteria Petrifilms and will see the results in two days.
Unfortunately, the solar cooker did not have a favourable result in terms of WAPI. The WAPI tube was checked at about 12:30 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 4:15 p.m. (finish time for the solar cooker test), and the wax therein failed to melt (melting indicates pasteurization). We are not sure if this null result is due to our makeshift setup (with all crumpled aluminium foil), due to too ambitious amount of water (5 L in a small jerry can), or due to an occasionally cloudy day.
This disappointing WAPI result suggests that we should redesign our solar cookers a bit. So far we are limited by material. The cardboard boxes at our disposal have been difficult to make into an inner and an outer box typically required for a solar cooker. So this is why we started with a single-box configuration, in which the interior is lined with aluminium foil. Late in the afternoon, Kevin designed a setup in which an inner-outer box configuration is possible, with the material constraint that the inner box is way shallower than the outer box (and we did not really want to cut up the outer box before a design is finalised). The flaps of the outer box were turned inward, and some pieces of cardboard of the right size were wedged against the flaps, forming a support on which the much shallower inner box. The flaps, and much of the interiors of the inner and outer boxes were lined with aluminium foil (the inner box was cut open to glue the aluminium foil properly, but the outer box was not so important in terms of crimpled aluminium foil). Our only reservation is that the inner box might be too small to be very effective, but so far we have no other choices of inner boxes.
Tomorrow we also plan to test the original one-box configuration, but with the aluminium foil glued properly (instead of taped in an ad hoc manner). We just hope that the weather tomorrow will be fair. In the morning, we set up a makeshift solar cooker with a WAPI inserted at 9:00 a.m. We also inserted WAPIs into a large and a small SODIS bottles and put these onto the roof, just as a control. Mike suggested flattening out the cardboard box and then pasting aluminium foil to its interior (we so far had been taping aluminium foil, which became very ruffled in the process). This was the way Mike saw done in Solar Connections Association. We attempted this on half a cardboard box before we ran out of glue, unfortunately, so this method was not tested today (we needed to get more glue from Masaka).
Kevin went to all the water sources in Ddegeya (BH4, P1, P2, the two ponds beside BH1, BH6, and P3) and took water samples from these. These were subsequently plated on Petrifilm for microbial analysis. In the meanwhile, Dave and Mike were going to wash more sand, but Joseph and Eddie dropped by. Eddie had agreed to be a test household for the slow sand filter, so Dave and Mike showed them the steps in sifting and then washing sand.
Near noon, Dave and Mike went to Masaka to get more supplies---namely, some water-based glue for gluing aluminium foil onto cardboard boxes, some more friendly black paint, a paint brush, and some grocery supplies that the clinic requested. Dave and Mike were unable to obtain putty glue or some transparent cover (e.g. glass or Plexiglas) for the solar cooker. In the meanwhile, Kevin spent entire afternoon sifting sand from the fine/intermediate-sized pile in order to just get the finest sand for washing, with the immense help of some children.
Now about the solar cooker. For most of the time, the black-painted container felt very hot to touch, and when the water was removed, one could only hold his finger in the water for about 2-3 seconds, suggesting that the water temperature was at least 60 C. We plated water from the solar cooker on coliform and enterobacteria Petrifilms and will see the results in two days.
Unfortunately, the solar cooker did not have a favourable result in terms of WAPI. The WAPI tube was checked at about 12:30 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 4:15 p.m. (finish time for the solar cooker test), and the wax therein failed to melt (melting indicates pasteurization). We are not sure if this null result is due to our makeshift setup (with all crumpled aluminium foil), due to too ambitious amount of water (5 L in a small jerry can), or due to an occasionally cloudy day. Incidentally, just after taking off the water and finding out that the WAPI failed to melt, Kevin threw in a second WAPI. This one melted a little, yielding some powder at the bottom of the WAPI tube. We are currently not sure what this means. As expected, the WAPIs in the SODIS bottles did not do anything interesting.
This disappointing WAPI result suggests that we should redesign our solar cookers a bit. So far we are limited by material. The cardboard boxes at our disposal have been difficult to make into an inner and an outer box typically required for a solar cooker. So this is why we started with a single-box configuration, in which the interior is lined with aluminium foil. Late in the afternoon, Kevin designed a setup in which an inner-outer box configuration is possible, with the material constraint that the inner box is way shallower than the outer box (and we did not really want to cut up the outer box before a design is finalised). The flaps of the outer box were turned inward, and some pieces of cardboard of the right size were wedged against the flaps, forming a support on which the much shallower inner box. The flaps, and much of the interiors of the inner and outer boxes were lined with aluminium foil (the inner box was cut open to glue the aluminium foil properly, but the outer box was not so important in terms of crimpled aluminium foil). Our only reservation is that the inner box might be too small to be very effective, but so far we have no other choices of inner boxes.
Tomorrow we also plan to test the original one-box configuration, but with the aluminium foil glued properly (instead of taped in an ad hoc manner). We just hope that the weather tomorrow will be fair. Any other suggestions for making the solar cooker behave more efficiently?
January 16, 2010 - Ddegeya
by bringing back not one, not two, not three, not four, but five WAPIs. But we'll leave Mike's adventures in its due chronological place.
In the morning, Kevin attempted to wash a batch of fine/intermediate sand (sifted via the new sieve purchased in Masaka) in rainwater (it was raining very heavily). The result was rather unsatisfactory---after about 30 washes, the water was still somewhat cloudy. There were some dirt/clay/mud particles roughly the same size as the intermediate sand particles, and it was virtually impossible to separate the two. Dave and Kevin then loaded a small batch of fine sand only (sifted via the original sieve with the smallest pore size) using BH4's water (after the rain, there was virtually no traffic at the borehole for a while). After about 20 washes, the water ran relatively clear (though still turbid compared to the original BH or even pond water). We then did one more batch---this time with the pond water and a stool. The water cleared more or less after about 25 washes. Since washing each batch took about 1 hour, this was all we managed to accomplish in the morning.
After a light lunch of protein bar, chapati, and avocadoes, we washed another batch of sand (this time we were more ambitious and loaded more sand---and the water did not clear until after about 35 washes). Joseph showed up at around 2:40 p.m., at which point Kevin left with him to explore more households and to collect water samples (swab tests) from drinking water storage containers and rainwater collector. In the meanwhile, Monica was cooking up some rice for the dinner and needed Dave's help.
Joseph and Kevin first went to BH1 and checked its location. There was still some confusion over the number of BHs and wells in that area, and Joseph was unable to clarify that. We will have to confirm everything with John when he returns. Then we visited some household near Salongo's area, and here are the results:
Household 16
Charles lives near BH1, and has 2 adults and 4 children in the family. They collect water from BH1 and sometimes from BH4 and P1. The family uses about 4 jerry cans, 5 L of which is for drinking. The family drinks tea only.
The family collects rainwater, and uses a roof guttering system. Rainwater is collected in jerry cans and a small plastic drum. When it rains heavily, about 8 jerry cans of water can be collected, lasting the family about 3 days.
When asked to show the water storage, the family brought a very clean bucket that seemed unused. The family let us collect samples directly from the rainwater drum.
Household 17
Mr. D has a relatively rich house housing 2 adults. The family farms and the wife weaves baskets to sell. ***The husband collects water*** from the ponds near BH1. THe family consumes about 2 jerry cans of water per day, 10 L of which is used for drinking. The family boils drinking water---for both tea and plain water. The family purchases firewood, and needs about 1000 UGX per day. It takes about 10 minutes to heat water to boiling, and the water is kept at boiling for about 5 minutes. Boiled water is stored in a saucepan.
The family collects rainwater in a drum (equivalent of about 10 jerry cans) and 5 more jerry cans. About half of the roof is covered by the gutter system. During heavy rains, the family can collect about 15 jerry cans of water, which can last for 5 days. The family also boils rainwater.
When asked to show the water storage, the family brought a cup of water. When asked to show the rainwater collector, the family also brought a cup of water.
Household 18
Tom's family has 2 parents and 6 school children. The family collects water from BH1 when it works---when it breaks down, water is collected from the pond. The BH can break at any time unpredictably. Children collect water, making 1 trip daily with 5 jerry cans. It takes a long time to fill a jerry can---about a few minutes. The family drinks about 5.5 L of water per day as porridge. The family boils drinking water using collected firewood.
Rainwater is collected in drums---about 100 L. Heavy rains can provide water for 2 days. Rainwater is boiled, but unboiled water is still cleaner than pond water. When asked to provide samples of water storage and rainwater collector, the family provided cups supposedly with the corresponding waters.
Household 19
Anne-Maria has a dog whose barking sounds like Goose the dog at the clinic. The family consists of 2 adults and 2 school children, and they collect water from the pond beside BH1. The family uses 3-4 jerry cans daily, and collecting such water requires about 2 one-hour trips daily. About 5-10 L of water is drunk per day. Water is boiled, and consumed as tea or plain water. Boiling is done using firewood---either bought or collected---at an approximate price of 10000 UGX for a few (e.g. 4) days. It takes about 15 minutes to heat 5 L of water to boiling, and the family keeps the water rolling for 5 minutes.
Rainwater is collected via a small roof gutter into big saucepans. Heavy rains can fill 5 jerry cans, whilch can last ***3 days***. Rainwater is boiled, though unboiled water is still considered cleaner than pond water, because it comes from the roof.
Upon taking leave, the family requests drums for rainwater collection. According to Joseph, these are not too expensive to purchase.
Household 20
Hadija recalls several times in which people (both MIT-EWB and workers from the Engeye clinic) visited her house and asked many survey questions. She complained that all these talks yielded no significant benefit. She is cynical that we would be able to contribute anything, but she was willing to answer our questions.
The family, which has 10 adults and 9 school children, collects water from Nalongo---***B4 and P1***. They sometimes collect from another pond---P3---but this is far. ***Children collect water***. About 8-10 jerry cans of water is needed per day, and about 10 L is drunk as tea or plain water, ***with boiling***. Firewood is bought, costing about 10000 UGX per week.
Rainwater is collected via a roof gutter into a drum and jerry cans. Heavy rains can result in 12 jerry cans of water, supporting the family for about 3 days.
Even if the clinic does implement some rainwater storage facility, the family would still collect the water from the pond, as the clinic is too far.
In the meanwhile, Mike returned with his trophy, the five WAPIs. However, he did not manage to find the transparent plates (glass or Plexiglas) covering the solar cookers, nor the putty glue for the leaky bucket. We might end up just pulling the leaky pipes out, and reinstalling the seemingly more trusty pipes with the screws. He had a tour of Solar Connections Association with Olivia (the lady whom Kevin arranged for the order of WAPIs), witnessing the parabolic, box, and panel cookers (the latter of which can cost about 15000 UGX apiece; the former ones are much more expensive---the parabolic one being 300000 UGX apiece). The lady also showed Mike a way in which an aluminium foil can be glued quite flat onto a cardboard box. However, Mike does not have this glue. This is a place that Kevin and Dave should visit at the end of their trip---if nothing, just to pick up some additional cheap WAPIs to bring back to the U.S. (where it costs about $5 apiece). According to Mike, the taxi he took on the way back to Ddegeya broke down and he had to flag down another one. Apparently the Ugandans did not trust a mzungu engineer to inspect their car.
Whilst Kevin was collecting water samples our new friends Daniel and Freddy turned up at the clinic to find out more about what we were trying to do. We had met them the previous day whilst busy washing sand at Nalongo---apparently they had learnt about biosand filters in biology class and were keen to see the practical aspects of them being built. With the help of Kevin's Lugandan annotated diagrams and a tour of our various sand filled buckets we explained the science behind both the sand filter and solar cooker. It was uplifting to see such enthusiasm from young Ugandans who had made the hour long treck to see us at the clinic, regardless of the fact they both had access to tapped water in their home town of chinoni. After an exchange of email addresses we invited them back in a couple of days to view our (hopefully) working prototypes. From our conversation, we found out that Daniel and Freddy live in Kinoni (the next town, about 1 hour's walk away). The town has water pipes (whose pump we saw the other day near the Trading Centre in Ddegeya on the north side of the Masaka-Mbarara Road), but not every household can afford it, so many still use wells, etc.
Just before sundown, Mike and Kevin managed to wash another batch of fine sand. This one cleared quite readily after 20 washes---though the lighting was different. We had originally planned to leave some cleaned sand wet and some dry, but from Daniel and Freddy's lessons, and from Kevin's recollections, it seems that the washed sand should be given a chance to dry, perhaps so that dirt/clay particles do not clump together and can be washed off more readily in a follow-up wash.
Near dinner time, Tom and his father (Bob) returned from a trip. After Kevin and Dave plated the swab samples collected from the households (sometimes with somewhat catastrophic results), Kevin started cooking fried rice, this time under Monica's motherly supervision. Dave also had another chance to demonstrate his chapati prowess.
Tomorrow we will build the solar cookers in the morning and test with the WAPIs. We will also wash some more sand and hopefully be in a position to build our first prototype.
In the morning, Kevin attempted to wash a batch of fine/intermediate sand (sifted via the new sieve purchased in Masaka) in rainwater (it was raining very heavily). The result was rather unsatisfactory---after about 30 washes, the water was still somewhat cloudy. There were some dirt/clay/mud particles roughly the same size as the intermediate sand particles, and it was virtually impossible to separate the two. Dave and Kevin then loaded a small batch of fine sand only (sifted via the original sieve with the smallest pore size) using BH4's water (after the rain, there was virtually no traffic at the borehole for a while). After about 20 washes, the water ran relatively clear (though still turbid compared to the original BH or even pond water). We then did one more batch---this time with the pond water and a stool. The water cleared more or less after about 25 washes. Since washing each batch took about 1 hour, this was all we managed to accomplish in the morning.
After a light lunch of protein bar, chapati, and avocadoes, we washed another batch of sand (this time we were more ambitious and loaded more sand---and the water did not clear until after about 35 washes). Joseph showed up at around 2:40 p.m., at which point Kevin left with him to explore more households and to collect water samples (swab tests) from drinking water storage containers and rainwater collector. In the meanwhile, Monica was cooking up some rice for the dinner and needed Dave's help.
Joseph and Kevin first went to BH1 and checked its location. There was still some confusion over the number of BHs and wells in that area, and Joseph was unable to clarify that. We will have to confirm everything with John when he returns. Then we visited some household near Salongo's area, and here are the results:
Household 16
Charles lives near BH1, and has 2 adults and 4 children in the family. They collect water from BH1 and sometimes from BH4 and P1. The family uses about 4 jerry cans, 5 L of which is for drinking. The family drinks tea only.
The family collects rainwater, and uses a roof guttering system. Rainwater is collected in jerry cans and a small plastic drum. When it rains heavily, about 8 jerry cans of water can be collected, lasting the family about 3 days.
When asked to show the water storage, the family brought a very clean bucket that seemed unused. The family let us collect samples directly from the rainwater drum.
Household 17
Mr. D has a relatively rich house housing 2 adults. The family farms and the wife weaves baskets to sell. ***The husband collects water*** from the ponds near BH1. THe family consumes about 2 jerry cans of water per day, 10 L of which is used for drinking. The family boils drinking water---for both tea and plain water. The family purchases firewood, and needs about 1000 UGX per day. It takes about 10 minutes to heat water to boiling, and the water is kept at boiling for about 5 minutes. Boiled water is stored in a saucepan.
The family collects rainwater in a drum (equivalent of about 10 jerry cans) and 5 more jerry cans. About half of the roof is covered by the gutter system. During heavy rains, the family can collect about 15 jerry cans of water, which can last for 5 days. The family also boils rainwater.
When asked to show the water storage, the family brought a cup of water. When asked to show the rainwater collector, the family also brought a cup of water.
Household 18
Tom's family has 2 parents and 6 school children. The family collects water from BH1 when it works---when it breaks down, water is collected from the pond. The BH can break at any time unpredictably. Children collect water, making 1 trip daily with 5 jerry cans. It takes a long time to fill a jerry can---about a few minutes. The family drinks about 5.5 L of water per day as porridge. The family boils drinking water using collected firewood.
Rainwater is collected in drums---about 100 L. Heavy rains can provide water for 2 days. Rainwater is boiled, but unboiled water is still cleaner than pond water. When asked to provide samples of water storage and rainwater collector, the family provided cups supposedly with the corresponding waters.
Household 19
Anne-Maria has a dog whose barking sounds like Goose the dog at the clinic. The family consists of 2 adults and 2 school children, and they collect water from the pond beside BH1. The family uses 3-4 jerry cans daily, and collecting such water requires about 2 one-hour trips daily. About 5-10 L of water is drunk per day. Water is boiled, and consumed as tea or plain water. Boiling is done using firewood---either bought or collected---at an approximate price of 10000 UGX for a few (e.g. 4) days. It takes about 15 minutes to heat 5 L of water to boiling, and the family keeps the water rolling for 5 minutes.
Rainwater is collected via a small roof gutter into big saucepans. Heavy rains can fill 5 jerry cans, whilch can last ***3 days***. Rainwater is boiled, though unboiled water is still considered cleaner than pond water, because it comes from the roof.
Upon taking leave, the family requests drums for rainwater collection. According to Joseph, these are not too expensive to purchase.
Household 20
Hadija recalls several times in which people (both MIT-EWB and workers from the Engeye clinic) visited her house and asked many survey questions. She complained that all these talks yielded no significant benefit. She is cynical that we would be able to contribute anything, but she was willing to answer our questions.
The family, which has 10 adults and 9 school children, collects water from Nalongo---***B4 and P1***. They sometimes collect from another pond---P3---but this is far. ***Children collect water***. About 8-10 jerry cans of water is needed per day, and about 10 L is drunk as tea or plain water, ***with boiling***. Firewood is bought, costing about 10000 UGX per week.
Rainwater is collected via a roof gutter into a drum and jerry cans. Heavy rains can result in 12 jerry cans of water, supporting the family for about 3 days.
Even if the clinic does implement some rainwater storage facility, the family would still collect the water from the pond, as the clinic is too far.
In the meanwhile, Mike returned with his trophy, the five WAPIs. However, he did not manage to find the transparent plates (glass or Plexiglas) covering the solar cookers, nor the putty glue for the leaky bucket. We might end up just pulling the leaky pipes out, and reinstalling the seemingly more trusty pipes with the screws. He had a tour of Solar Connections Association with Olivia (the lady whom Kevin arranged for the order of WAPIs), witnessing the parabolic, box, and panel cookers (the latter of which can cost about 15000 UGX apiece; the former ones are much more expensive---the parabolic one being 300000 UGX apiece). The lady also showed Mike a way in which an aluminium foil can be glued quite flat onto a cardboard box. However, Mike does not have this glue. This is a place that Kevin and Dave should visit at the end of their trip---if nothing, just to pick up some additional cheap WAPIs to bring back to the U.S. (where it costs about $5 apiece). According to Mike, the taxi he took on the way back to Ddegeya broke down and he had to flag down another one. Apparently the Ugandans did not trust a mzungu engineer to inspect their car.
Whilst Kevin was collecting water samples our new friends Daniel and Freddy turned up at the clinic to find out more about what we were trying to do. We had met them the previous day whilst busy washing sand at Nalongo---apparently they had learnt about biosand filters in biology class and were keen to see the practical aspects of them being built. With the help of Kevin's Lugandan annotated diagrams and a tour of our various sand filled buckets we explained the science behind both the sand filter and solar cooker. It was uplifting to see such enthusiasm from young Ugandans who had made the hour long treck to see us at the clinic, regardless of the fact they both had access to tapped water in their home town of chinoni. After an exchange of email addresses we invited them back in a couple of days to view our (hopefully) working prototypes. From our conversation, we found out that Daniel and Freddy live in Kinoni (the next town, about 1 hour's walk away). The town has water pipes (whose pump we saw the other day near the Trading Centre in Ddegeya on the north side of the Masaka-Mbarara Road), but not every household can afford it, so many still use wells, etc.
Just before sundown, Mike and Kevin managed to wash another batch of fine sand. This one cleared quite readily after 20 washes---though the lighting was different. We had originally planned to leave some cleaned sand wet and some dry, but from Daniel and Freddy's lessons, and from Kevin's recollections, it seems that the washed sand should be given a chance to dry, perhaps so that dirt/clay particles do not clump together and can be washed off more readily in a follow-up wash.
Near dinner time, Tom and his father (Bob) returned from a trip. After Kevin and Dave plated the swab samples collected from the households (sometimes with somewhat catastrophic results), Kevin started cooking fried rice, this time under Monica's motherly supervision. Dave also had another chance to demonstrate his chapati prowess.
Tomorrow we will build the solar cookers in the morning and test with the WAPIs. We will also wash some more sand and hopefully be in a position to build our first prototype.
January 15, 2010 - Ddegeya
At around 8:30 a.m., there was an annular solar eclipse. The sun suddenly darkened, and John provided some X-ray films through which we were able to view the eclipse---it was awesome!
We brought the pebbles from yesterday to Nalongo and used the water from P1 to wash. After a while, Joe recognised that the turbidity was caused by a few clay or mud particles mixed with the good pebbles. So in order to clean the pebbles/gravel properly, we needed to first sort out these clay/mud particles, which was a nightmare. But what must be done must be done. With Joe's help, we set up a "production line". We abandoned the sieve with the smallest pore (using the newly bought one with slightly larger pores). After the sand/gravel mixture passed through, yielding the finest sand below, the stuff left in the sieve was hand-sorted into larger gravel and the "rest", with the help of some kids. Dave hand-sorted the gravel to get rid of the clay/mud particles. Hopefully this will remove much of our woes so far.
In the meanwhile, Kevin made some phone calls to Solar Connection Association in Kampala. They apparently had WAPIs in stock and could sell us at either 2000 or 3000 UGX (depending on the person Kevin was asking). Olivia will be in office tomorrow (Saturday) from 8 a.m. to noon, and will be able to sell the WAPIs. Otherwise, she will be unavailable for the entire next week until next Saturday. Mike seems quite enthusiastic to take a break from the village life and go into town, so we arranged for him to leave with John (who will be coming back on Monday with the medical mission) later today, stay at Kampala Backpackers Hostel tonight, and obtain the WAPIs (alongside with some Plexiglas screens for solar cookers and some Ugandan shillings, hopefully) tomorrow morning.
After lunch, we examined the Petrifilm tests from the solar cooker/SODIS runs. All samples had zero bacterial counts (both enterobacteria and E. coli/coliform) except, oddly enough, for the small 675 mL bottle drawn from BH4, which has 54 enterobacteria, 11 coliform, and 0 E. coli dots. We were unable to explain this anomaly except that maybe this particular bottle was somewhat misplaced, or the test sample contaminated.
Then the arduous process of sieving sand/gravel ensued. With the help of the kids, we worked the entire afternoon, and managed to clear the second wheelbarrow of sand. Later in the day, we brought down the small and large gravels to wash. The large gravel (really stones) took a relatively short time to clear. However, the small gravel was more time-consuming, requiring about 15 trips to the Nalongo. Later, we still needed to hand-pick some clay/mud particles out of this pile, and washed the entire pile on top of a sieve to satisfactorily clear the wastewater. Just before sundown, we tried one batch of sand, but did not really finish due to the high traffic load at Nalongo.
We also tried to wash the green bucket (in which the pipe was fitted several days earlier using epoxy glue). Unfortunately, the epoxy glue seemed to have cracked and there was a steady leak at the bottom. We sent Mike a message to get putty glue in Kampala, hoping that this would reverse the situation. But as things stand, we cannot really build any prototype until Mike comes back and the glue is dry, which is earliest by Sunday afternoon.
For dinner, Dave and Joe were making chapati again, while Kevin made an attempt at fried rice. Due to the wrong order of the addition of food, and due to the unwieldy charcoat stove, the fried rice nearly proved to be a disaster, with raw vegetables/eggs and rice that had a pocho-like consistency. Monica managed to rescue the product by initiating another charcoat stove, using a larger and flatter pan, and adding lots and lots of oil. Dinner was served at 10:15 p.m. Sticky fried rice and chapati, we found, made good burritos.
We brought the pebbles from yesterday to Nalongo and used the water from P1 to wash. After a while, Joe recognised that the turbidity was caused by a few clay or mud particles mixed with the good pebbles. So in order to clean the pebbles/gravel properly, we needed to first sort out these clay/mud particles, which was a nightmare. But what must be done must be done. With Joe's help, we set up a "production line". We abandoned the sieve with the smallest pore (using the newly bought one with slightly larger pores). After the sand/gravel mixture passed through, yielding the finest sand below, the stuff left in the sieve was hand-sorted into larger gravel and the "rest", with the help of some kids. Dave hand-sorted the gravel to get rid of the clay/mud particles. Hopefully this will remove much of our woes so far.
In the meanwhile, Kevin made some phone calls to Solar Connection Association in Kampala. They apparently had WAPIs in stock and could sell us at either 2000 or 3000 UGX (depending on the person Kevin was asking). Olivia will be in office tomorrow (Saturday) from 8 a.m. to noon, and will be able to sell the WAPIs. Otherwise, she will be unavailable for the entire next week until next Saturday. Mike seems quite enthusiastic to take a break from the village life and go into town, so we arranged for him to leave with John (who will be coming back on Monday with the medical mission) later today, stay at Kampala Backpackers Hostel tonight, and obtain the WAPIs (alongside with some Plexiglas screens for solar cookers and some Ugandan shillings, hopefully) tomorrow morning.
After lunch, we examined the Petrifilm tests from the solar cooker/SODIS runs. All samples had zero bacterial counts (both enterobacteria and E. coli/coliform) except, oddly enough, for the small 675 mL bottle drawn from BH4, which has 54 enterobacteria, 11 coliform, and 0 E. coli dots. We were unable to explain this anomaly except that maybe this particular bottle was somewhat misplaced, or the test sample contaminated.
Then the arduous process of sieving sand/gravel ensued. With the help of the kids, we worked the entire afternoon, and managed to clear the second wheelbarrow of sand. Later in the day, we brought down the small and large gravels to wash. The large gravel (really stones) took a relatively short time to clear. However, the small gravel was more time-consuming, requiring about 15 trips to the Nalongo. Later, we still needed to hand-pick some clay/mud particles out of this pile, and washed the entire pile on top of a sieve to satisfactorily clear the wastewater. Just before sundown, we tried one batch of sand, but did not really finish due to the high traffic load at Nalongo.
We also tried to wash the green bucket (in which the pipe was fitted several days earlier using epoxy glue). Unfortunately, the epoxy glue seemed to have cracked and there was a steady leak at the bottom. We sent Mike a message to get putty glue in Kampala, hoping that this would reverse the situation. But as things stand, we cannot really build any prototype until Mike comes back and the glue is dry, which is earliest by Sunday afternoon.
For dinner, Dave and Joe were making chapati again, while Kevin made an attempt at fried rice. Due to the wrong order of the addition of food, and due to the unwieldy charcoat stove, the fried rice nearly proved to be a disaster, with raw vegetables/eggs and rice that had a pocho-like consistency. Monica managed to rescue the product by initiating another charcoat stove, using a larger and flatter pan, and adding lots and lots of oil. Dinner was served at 10:15 p.m. Sticky fried rice and chapati, we found, made good burritos.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
January 14, 2010 - Masaka/Ddegeya
John and Joe left early in the morning to pick up some JMS medicine from Kampala. Tom and Bob left later to take a break in southwest Uganda, returning in 2 days or so. This left only Monica and us the three engineers. So Monica decided to go to Masaka with us, partly to show us where the different things/shops are located.
We went to Masaka with the goal of (1) obtaining materials necessary for building the prototypes, and (2) obtaining price quotes for some materials that we may need in the future. First we give the second information:
Plain textile (for cloth filtration) - 15000 UGX / m or 30000 UGX / 4 m
Shiny hard surface (metallic - potentially solar cooker) - 2000 UGX / ft
1 mm diameter sieve - 10000 UGX / m^2
Water tanks - unnamed brand (for community-based sand filtration or rainwater storage system)
220 L - 45000 UGX; 500 L - 177000 UGX
Water tanks - Crestank
200 L - 106500 UGX; 1000 L - 324500 UGX; 1500 L - 442500 UGX
Water tanks - Poly Fibre Ltd (may not be available for all sizes) - Tel. 4271279; 4271372; info@polyfibre.co.ug; polyfibre2003@yahoo.com
100 L - 50 cm diameter - 60 cm height - 53820 UGX
140 L - 67 cm diameter - 50 cm height - 67860 UGX
250 L - 84 cm diameter - 55 cm height - 100620 UGX
300 L - 75 cm diameter - 82 cm height - 128700 UGX500 L - 96 cm diameter - 88 cm height - 173160 UGX
750 L - 98 cm diameter - 110 cm height - 243360 UGX
1000 L - 108 cm diameter - 135 cm height - 317070 UGX
1500 L - 119 cm diameter - 150 cm height - 436410 UGX
2000 L - 135 cm diameter - 164 cm height - 546390 UGX2300 L - 138 cm diameter - 175 cm height - 604890 UGX
3000 L - 167 cm diameter - 165 cm height - 797940 UGX4000 L - 179 cm diameter - 185 cm height - 1045980 UGX5000 L - 192 cm diameter - 206 cm height - 1277640 UGX
6000 L - 209 cm diameter - 205 cm height - 1628640 UGX
etc.
Glass sheet (for insulation layer on top of solar cooker) - 7000 UGX for 0.5 m by 0.5 m
Roof gutter - 9500 UGX for 7 ft
We also noticed an interesting poster promoting a charcoal-burning stove known as Ugastove. According to the poster, Ugastove uses about half as much charcoal as normal stoves. The company information is as follows:
Plot 574 Kayemba Road
Nkere Zone, Kibuye 1
PO Bix 1265
Makindye, Kampala
+256 (0)752 640 073 / 772 674 267
We purchased the following materials:
Four 3/4'' elbows, at 3000 UGX each
5'2'' of plastic long threaded pipes/screws (3/4'' pipe threaded at both ends), at 4000 UGX per 1'6''
Metallic nuts - 1000 each (a plastic one would also cost 1000 each)
2 plastic buckets (for Biosand filter), bargained down to 14000 UGX each
2 small wash basins (for diffuser plate), 1000 UGX each
2 small paint brushes, 800 UGX each (the awful black paint ruined our last paint brush)
A 2 ft-by-2 ft sieve, with pores slightly larger (about 1 mm) than our sieve with the smallest pores (4000 UGX)
We actually did find a wash basin which would fit perfectly into the plastic bucket, but unfortunately it was too deep. We bought a wash basin whose diameter is smaller than that of the plastic bucket. We plan to cut the basin so it is shallower. We then can punch 4 holes and suspend it above the plastic bucket. With holes drilled to the floor of the basin, this could function as a diffuser plate for the Biosand filter---though it would be important to tell the households to only pour water into the basin and not the uncovered periphery.
At the request of the clinic, we also bought the following grocery iterms from Masaka:
3 jugs of water (5 L each) - 21000 UGX
10 avocadoes - 1000 UGX
Carrots (1 kg) and garlic (0.5 kg) - 4500 UGX
We had some delicious rolex (omelette on top of a chapati bread). Monica and Mike went to get more grocery stuff from the supermarket (e.g. bread, peanut butter), as well as 300 m of aluminium foil (which cost 22000 UGX), while Dave and Kevin wandered off to finish the purchase of Biosand filter materials, then took a regular 5-person taxi (which at one time held 6 people in the backseat), arriving in Ddegeya at about 1 p.m.
In the afternoon, Dave and Monica walked to Kinoni to get some goat meat (this is for Joe's farewell dinner), leaving Mike and Kevin to babysit Goose the dog. In the meanwhile, Mike made another frame for our newly purchased sieve, while Kevin drilled some holes into one of the basins, which function satisfactorily as a diffuser plate. After Dave came back, we spent the whole afternoon sieving sand. While our original smallest sieve was still in use for the finest sand, our new sieve proved great in separating a pile of intermediate-sized sand/gravel mixture into the respective sand (about 1 mm in diameter) and gravel (anything larger). So we have set up a process whereby we end up with sand of 2 sizes and gravel of 3 sizes. The rate-limiting step, however, is still the original sieve with the smallest pore size. It takes about 1 minute or less for mixtures to pass through the other sieves, but for the sieve with the smallest pore size, a batch of the same size can take up to 20 minutes.
By the end of the afternoon, we believe that we have enough gravel/sand to assemble one sand filter (we are going to build one ourselves and test it before we start on the other households---we can give this preliminary filter to the clinic or Joseph). So we brought gravel/stones of the largest two sizes to BH4 to wash. After about maybe 15 washes (and slighltly bleeding hands), these were still quite dirty, but we had to give up for the day because the water-collecting traffic kept coming, and it had precedence. We can't imagine what it will be like to wash the finer sand.
John and Joe came back in the evening, with many cardboard boxes from JMS. This will give us enough materials, hopefully, to start building the solar cookers.
Right now as things stand, sieving/washing the sand is taking up a lot, lot more time than we expected. We seriously doubt that the households will have the time to do their lot of sieving/washing (most of them are available 1-2 hours per day, for about 5 days), but we should probably at least ask them to come to the clinic and participate in the process. Perhaps next time, it will be useful to locate sand of better quality and consistency (John's pile of gravel, which cost us $80, ends up unused).
As night falls, the preparation for a feast honouring Joe's departure began. Monica/Mike made a stew consisting of the goat bought at Kinoni today. Kevin was going to make some fried rice, but Monica delivered a bad cheque: there was no rice. Dave also honed his skills in chapati-making. He is now probably the chapati guru in residence, and we look forward to welcoming him back to MIT.
We went to Masaka with the goal of (1) obtaining materials necessary for building the prototypes, and (2) obtaining price quotes for some materials that we may need in the future. First we give the second information:
Plain textile (for cloth filtration) - 15000 UGX / m or 30000 UGX / 4 m
Shiny hard surface (metallic - potentially solar cooker) - 2000 UGX / ft
1 mm diameter sieve - 10000 UGX / m^2
Water tanks - unnamed brand (for community-based sand filtration or rainwater storage system)
220 L - 45000 UGX; 500 L - 177000 UGX
Water tanks - Crestank
200 L - 106500 UGX; 1000 L - 324500 UGX; 1500 L - 442500 UGX
Water tanks - Poly Fibre Ltd (may not be available for all sizes) - Tel. 4271279; 4271372; info@polyfibre.co.ug; polyfibre2003@yahoo.com
100 L - 50 cm diameter - 60 cm height - 53820 UGX
140 L - 67 cm diameter - 50 cm height - 67860 UGX
250 L - 84 cm diameter - 55 cm height - 100620 UGX
300 L - 75 cm diameter - 82 cm height - 128700 UGX500 L - 96 cm diameter - 88 cm height - 173160 UGX
750 L - 98 cm diameter - 110 cm height - 243360 UGX
1000 L - 108 cm diameter - 135 cm height - 317070 UGX
1500 L - 119 cm diameter - 150 cm height - 436410 UGX
2000 L - 135 cm diameter - 164 cm height - 546390 UGX2300 L - 138 cm diameter - 175 cm height - 604890 UGX
3000 L - 167 cm diameter - 165 cm height - 797940 UGX4000 L - 179 cm diameter - 185 cm height - 1045980 UGX5000 L - 192 cm diameter - 206 cm height - 1277640 UGX
6000 L - 209 cm diameter - 205 cm height - 1628640 UGX
etc.
Glass sheet (for insulation layer on top of solar cooker) - 7000 UGX for 0.5 m by 0.5 m
Roof gutter - 9500 UGX for 7 ft
We also noticed an interesting poster promoting a charcoal-burning stove known as Ugastove. According to the poster, Ugastove uses about half as much charcoal as normal stoves. The company information is as follows:
Plot 574 Kayemba Road
Nkere Zone, Kibuye 1
PO Bix 1265
Makindye, Kampala
+256 (0)752 640 073 / 772 674 267
We purchased the following materials:
Four 3/4'' elbows, at 3000 UGX each
5'2'' of plastic long threaded pipes/screws (3/4'' pipe threaded at both ends), at 4000 UGX per 1'6''
Metallic nuts - 1000 each (a plastic one would also cost 1000 each)
2 plastic buckets (for Biosand filter), bargained down to 14000 UGX each
2 small wash basins (for diffuser plate), 1000 UGX each
2 small paint brushes, 800 UGX each (the awful black paint ruined our last paint brush)
A 2 ft-by-2 ft sieve, with pores slightly larger (about 1 mm) than our sieve with the smallest pores (4000 UGX)
We actually did find a wash basin which would fit perfectly into the plastic bucket, but unfortunately it was too deep. We bought a wash basin whose diameter is smaller than that of the plastic bucket. We plan to cut the basin so it is shallower. We then can punch 4 holes and suspend it above the plastic bucket. With holes drilled to the floor of the basin, this could function as a diffuser plate for the Biosand filter---though it would be important to tell the households to only pour water into the basin and not the uncovered periphery.
At the request of the clinic, we also bought the following grocery iterms from Masaka:
3 jugs of water (5 L each) - 21000 UGX
10 avocadoes - 1000 UGX
Carrots (1 kg) and garlic (0.5 kg) - 4500 UGX
We had some delicious rolex (omelette on top of a chapati bread). Monica and Mike went to get more grocery stuff from the supermarket (e.g. bread, peanut butter), as well as 300 m of aluminium foil (which cost 22000 UGX), while Dave and Kevin wandered off to finish the purchase of Biosand filter materials, then took a regular 5-person taxi (which at one time held 6 people in the backseat), arriving in Ddegeya at about 1 p.m.
In the afternoon, Dave and Monica walked to Kinoni to get some goat meat (this is for Joe's farewell dinner), leaving Mike and Kevin to babysit Goose the dog. In the meanwhile, Mike made another frame for our newly purchased sieve, while Kevin drilled some holes into one of the basins, which function satisfactorily as a diffuser plate. After Dave came back, we spent the whole afternoon sieving sand. While our original smallest sieve was still in use for the finest sand, our new sieve proved great in separating a pile of intermediate-sized sand/gravel mixture into the respective sand (about 1 mm in diameter) and gravel (anything larger). So we have set up a process whereby we end up with sand of 2 sizes and gravel of 3 sizes. The rate-limiting step, however, is still the original sieve with the smallest pore size. It takes about 1 minute or less for mixtures to pass through the other sieves, but for the sieve with the smallest pore size, a batch of the same size can take up to 20 minutes.
By the end of the afternoon, we believe that we have enough gravel/sand to assemble one sand filter (we are going to build one ourselves and test it before we start on the other households---we can give this preliminary filter to the clinic or Joseph). So we brought gravel/stones of the largest two sizes to BH4 to wash. After about maybe 15 washes (and slighltly bleeding hands), these were still quite dirty, but we had to give up for the day because the water-collecting traffic kept coming, and it had precedence. We can't imagine what it will be like to wash the finer sand.
John and Joe came back in the evening, with many cardboard boxes from JMS. This will give us enough materials, hopefully, to start building the solar cookers.
Right now as things stand, sieving/washing the sand is taking up a lot, lot more time than we expected. We seriously doubt that the households will have the time to do their lot of sieving/washing (most of them are available 1-2 hours per day, for about 5 days), but we should probably at least ask them to come to the clinic and participate in the process. Perhaps next time, it will be useful to locate sand of better quality and consistency (John's pile of gravel, which cost us $80, ends up unused).
As night falls, the preparation for a feast honouring Joe's departure began. Monica/Mike made a stew consisting of the goat bought at Kinoni today. Kevin was going to make some fried rice, but Monica delivered a bad cheque: there was no rice. Dave also honed his skills in chapati-making. He is now probably the chapati guru in residence, and we look forward to welcoming him back to MIT.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
January 13, 2010 - workshop
In the morning, we planned for the workshop, which will cover the following main points:
1. Causes of water contamination
There are germs in the water. These germs can stay afloat in the water, but they also like to be attached to particles in the water. These germs make you sick.
2. Biosand filtration
A layer of sand can trap the particles in the water, removing most of the germs. We can flow dirty water through this sand layer to clean the water. However, the water can also carry sand with it into the outlet. In order to trap the sand inside the filter, we can layer some larger gravels at the bottom of the filter, since the gravels can admit the water but not so much sand. However, there are also free-floating germs in the water, which are too small for the sand to remove physically. Incidentally, over time, the living matter already present in the water gets trapped at the water-sand interface, forming a living bio-layer. These living things like to eat up the free-floating bacteria, which makes the water even cleaner. However, this bio-layer is very sensitive, and can die easily. In order to keep it alive, it needs to be always immersed in water---it is important to keep a standing water. To do this, we need to engineer the water tube such that it comes up to the top, so that we do not need to constantly input water in order to keep standing water.
3. Solar pasteurization
Many people boil their water, since the heat kills the germs. Instead of getting heat from the firewood, we can also get heat from the sun. But the heat from the sun is much less intense than that from the firewood, so we will need to leave the water out in the sun for a long time before the water can be safe to drink. One simple way to do this is to fill a transparent plastic bottle with water, leave it out on the rooftop for one day on a sunny day or two days on a cloudy day. This method is called SODIS. A more advanced way involves building reflective surfaces (e.g. using aluminium foil) to reflect and concentrate the sunlight in order to heat up the water more efficiently. This method is called a solar cooker. The downside to the solar methods is that these are limited by sunlight and cannot be used when it rains, and that it takes a long time to treat water.
Joseph came later in the morning, and we went with him to visit Peter's household. The family has 7 children and 2 adults, and uses about 5 jerry cans of water collected from BH4, of which 1 jerry can is used for drinking, both in the form of tea and of water. The family sometimes boil their water, nsuing firewood collected from the forest, because boiling water can kill germs. The family is unwilling to help us test the prototypes, though they express interest if we construct the prototypes ourselves and have them test it. This is fine---we have three families. And Joseph also expressed some interest in helping us test a Biosand filter.
Upon returning to the clinic, we went through our workshop plan with Joseph (our translator) to make sure that he understands all the key concepts. Of all the points, the most difficult to score is the development of the bio-layer, which is not really intuitive. Joseph thinks that most of the people would be interested in SODIS because this is a simple method. In the mean time, we filled the black-painted jerry can with Nalongo water and put it into our solar cooker. We also layered a plastic film on the top to cover the cooker such that there is less convection. The clinic's cook saw our set up; Kevin explained the idea to her, but she remains unconvinced that it would be powerful enough to treat water.
We read the results of the Petrifilm tests from water samples gathered at 14:30 on 1/11, from BH4 and P1, as well as control (C), which is our drinking water. The results are given as follows. We strongly suspect that we have accidentally mislabelled the BH4 and P1 samples:
BH4 Enterobacteria sample 1: 36 (many dots without bubbles)
BH4 E. coli/coliform sample 1: 0/15 (many dots without bubbles)
BH4 Enterobacteria sample 2: 59 (many dots without bubbles)
BH4 E. coli/coliform sample 2: 1/23 (many dots without bubbles)
P1 E. coli/coliform sample 1: 0 (5 dots without bubbles)
P1 Enterobacteria sample 1: 1
P1 E. coli/coliform sample 2: 0
P1 Enterobacteria sample 2: 0
Control Enterobacteria: 0 (about 3 dots without bubbles)
Control E. coli/coliform: 0 (about 40 dots without bubbles)
Later, we sifted through our new pile of sand, with the constructive or destructive help of some kids, and it was another arduous process. This process continued until about 3 p.m., at which time we had a late lunch of rice, posho (??), and ground nut sauce.
We prepared some "posters" for the workshop (consisting of half A4 papers with drawings and some elementary Luganda labels with the help of John and Francis). One woman (whom we approached earlier in our interviews) appeared at 3 p.m. (but we didn't find out until about 4 p.m.) and waited for about 1 hour. Then at 4 p.m. about 4 more people showed up. Joseph, whom we had gone through the workshop materials this morning and was supposed to translate for us, went to look for the other households (whom we talked to yesterday). So we started, with John as our translator. More people trickled in, and a few went away, but the maximum was about 11 people, which was beyond our expectations (we had expected the 3 families from yesterday, plus maybe 2 more add-ons from one of the previously visited families).
John first started with reference to Helen and Becca's last meeting, in terms of Petrifilm tests and the recommendation to boil water. We emphasised that we are doing tests, and do not currently know which method works well for people. We will give them ways (e.g. Petrifilm) to monitor the water: we do not want them to drink water treated using our technology unless we know that they are as good as boiled water. We then had John go through the ideas of Biosand filter, SODIS, and solar cooker. We had some demonstrations, including the Rwanzori water bottle sand filter from yesterday, the empty bucket with the outlet pipes attached, the four SODIS plastic bottles which had been sitting on the roof for 2 days, and the solar cooker with the black-painted jerry can of water (which we put in this morning from Nalongo water). People were caught up a little on the idea of using the principle of hydrostatic pressure to maintain a standing water to keep the bio-layer alive (it was not an intuitive concept, and John needed to demonstrate with a kettle). People also had a chance to feel how warm the water in the solar cooker was. Even though we took it out of the sun when we started the workshop (it was getting cloudy and thundery but never rained), about 1.5 hours into the workshop, the water was still very warm---perhaps about 50C---how we wish we had a thermometer!
At the end, we took down the names of the people who attended, alongside with their interests (either bucket or cooker; no one chose SODIS). We explained to them that due to the limited time, resources, and scope of our test (we don't know if any technology works well), we can only accommodate a limited number of households. But here is a complete list of the participants with their preferences:
Kyeyune Jawada - cooker
Mbazira Edward - bucket
Gertrude Buyoudo - cooker
Richard Njagala - cooker/bucket
Eddie Muwuza - cooker
Nyanbi Najibu - cooker
Ssebulime Medi - bucket
Jjavuga - bucket
Niusima Noleda - bucket
Bafeyo Hadija - bucket
Joseph - bucket/cooker
As can be seen, the divide between the cookers and the buckets are about half and half. We plan to take perhaps 2 cookers and 2 buckets. This includes Eddie (cooker), who is quite involved with the clinic, and Joseph (bucket), who has been translating for us and knows what we are doing. We are impressed by a lady (Gertrude Buyoudo) who showed up at 3 p.m. and asked several questions. The fourth one (a bucket) is to be decided. Our plan is to go to Masaka tomorrow to look for the materials needed to construct the prototypes---wish us luck!
We then did some Petrifilm tests with the SODIS water (drawn from P1 and BH4, in both big 1.5 L and small 0.6 L bottles) as well as the solar cooker water (drawn from P1). Finally, we got together to talk more generally about our goals and plans over the remaining two weeks. It is important to push the workshop/prototype before the medical mission arrives. Then, based on our discussions with the different households, and based on Mike's inclination, we want to look at what may be wrong with the BHs, and find possible ways to address these efficiently.
1. Causes of water contamination
There are germs in the water. These germs can stay afloat in the water, but they also like to be attached to particles in the water. These germs make you sick.
2. Biosand filtration
A layer of sand can trap the particles in the water, removing most of the germs. We can flow dirty water through this sand layer to clean the water. However, the water can also carry sand with it into the outlet. In order to trap the sand inside the filter, we can layer some larger gravels at the bottom of the filter, since the gravels can admit the water but not so much sand. However, there are also free-floating germs in the water, which are too small for the sand to remove physically. Incidentally, over time, the living matter already present in the water gets trapped at the water-sand interface, forming a living bio-layer. These living things like to eat up the free-floating bacteria, which makes the water even cleaner. However, this bio-layer is very sensitive, and can die easily. In order to keep it alive, it needs to be always immersed in water---it is important to keep a standing water. To do this, we need to engineer the water tube such that it comes up to the top, so that we do not need to constantly input water in order to keep standing water.
3. Solar pasteurization
Many people boil their water, since the heat kills the germs. Instead of getting heat from the firewood, we can also get heat from the sun. But the heat from the sun is much less intense than that from the firewood, so we will need to leave the water out in the sun for a long time before the water can be safe to drink. One simple way to do this is to fill a transparent plastic bottle with water, leave it out on the rooftop for one day on a sunny day or two days on a cloudy day. This method is called SODIS. A more advanced way involves building reflective surfaces (e.g. using aluminium foil) to reflect and concentrate the sunlight in order to heat up the water more efficiently. This method is called a solar cooker. The downside to the solar methods is that these are limited by sunlight and cannot be used when it rains, and that it takes a long time to treat water.
Joseph came later in the morning, and we went with him to visit Peter's household. The family has 7 children and 2 adults, and uses about 5 jerry cans of water collected from BH4, of which 1 jerry can is used for drinking, both in the form of tea and of water. The family sometimes boil their water, nsuing firewood collected from the forest, because boiling water can kill germs. The family is unwilling to help us test the prototypes, though they express interest if we construct the prototypes ourselves and have them test it. This is fine---we have three families. And Joseph also expressed some interest in helping us test a Biosand filter.
Upon returning to the clinic, we went through our workshop plan with Joseph (our translator) to make sure that he understands all the key concepts. Of all the points, the most difficult to score is the development of the bio-layer, which is not really intuitive. Joseph thinks that most of the people would be interested in SODIS because this is a simple method. In the mean time, we filled the black-painted jerry can with Nalongo water and put it into our solar cooker. We also layered a plastic film on the top to cover the cooker such that there is less convection. The clinic's cook saw our set up; Kevin explained the idea to her, but she remains unconvinced that it would be powerful enough to treat water.
We read the results of the Petrifilm tests from water samples gathered at 14:30 on 1/11, from BH4 and P1, as well as control (C), which is our drinking water. The results are given as follows. We strongly suspect that we have accidentally mislabelled the BH4 and P1 samples:
BH4 Enterobacteria sample 1: 36 (many dots without bubbles)
BH4 E. coli/coliform sample 1: 0/15 (many dots without bubbles)
BH4 Enterobacteria sample 2: 59 (many dots without bubbles)
BH4 E. coli/coliform sample 2: 1/23 (many dots without bubbles)
P1 E. coli/coliform sample 1: 0 (5 dots without bubbles)
P1 Enterobacteria sample 1: 1
P1 E. coli/coliform sample 2: 0
P1 Enterobacteria sample 2: 0
Control Enterobacteria: 0 (about 3 dots without bubbles)
Control E. coli/coliform: 0 (about 40 dots without bubbles)
Later, we sifted through our new pile of sand, with the constructive or destructive help of some kids, and it was another arduous process. This process continued until about 3 p.m., at which time we had a late lunch of rice, posho (??), and ground nut sauce.
We prepared some "posters" for the workshop (consisting of half A4 papers with drawings and some elementary Luganda labels with the help of John and Francis). One woman (whom we approached earlier in our interviews) appeared at 3 p.m. (but we didn't find out until about 4 p.m.) and waited for about 1 hour. Then at 4 p.m. about 4 more people showed up. Joseph, whom we had gone through the workshop materials this morning and was supposed to translate for us, went to look for the other households (whom we talked to yesterday). So we started, with John as our translator. More people trickled in, and a few went away, but the maximum was about 11 people, which was beyond our expectations (we had expected the 3 families from yesterday, plus maybe 2 more add-ons from one of the previously visited families).
John first started with reference to Helen and Becca's last meeting, in terms of Petrifilm tests and the recommendation to boil water. We emphasised that we are doing tests, and do not currently know which method works well for people. We will give them ways (e.g. Petrifilm) to monitor the water: we do not want them to drink water treated using our technology unless we know that they are as good as boiled water. We then had John go through the ideas of Biosand filter, SODIS, and solar cooker. We had some demonstrations, including the Rwanzori water bottle sand filter from yesterday, the empty bucket with the outlet pipes attached, the four SODIS plastic bottles which had been sitting on the roof for 2 days, and the solar cooker with the black-painted jerry can of water (which we put in this morning from Nalongo water). People were caught up a little on the idea of using the principle of hydrostatic pressure to maintain a standing water to keep the bio-layer alive (it was not an intuitive concept, and John needed to demonstrate with a kettle). People also had a chance to feel how warm the water in the solar cooker was. Even though we took it out of the sun when we started the workshop (it was getting cloudy and thundery but never rained), about 1.5 hours into the workshop, the water was still very warm---perhaps about 50C---how we wish we had a thermometer!
At the end, we took down the names of the people who attended, alongside with their interests (either bucket or cooker; no one chose SODIS). We explained to them that due to the limited time, resources, and scope of our test (we don't know if any technology works well), we can only accommodate a limited number of households. But here is a complete list of the participants with their preferences:
Kyeyune Jawada - cooker
Mbazira Edward - bucket
Gertrude Buyoudo - cooker
Richard Njagala - cooker/bucket
Eddie Muwuza - cooker
Nyanbi Najibu - cooker
Ssebulime Medi - bucket
Jjavuga - bucket
Niusima Noleda - bucket
Bafeyo Hadija - bucket
Joseph - bucket/cooker
As can be seen, the divide between the cookers and the buckets are about half and half. We plan to take perhaps 2 cookers and 2 buckets. This includes Eddie (cooker), who is quite involved with the clinic, and Joseph (bucket), who has been translating for us and knows what we are doing. We are impressed by a lady (Gertrude Buyoudo) who showed up at 3 p.m. and asked several questions. The fourth one (a bucket) is to be decided. Our plan is to go to Masaka tomorrow to look for the materials needed to construct the prototypes---wish us luck!
We then did some Petrifilm tests with the SODIS water (drawn from P1 and BH4, in both big 1.5 L and small 0.6 L bottles) as well as the solar cooker water (drawn from P1). Finally, we got together to talk more generally about our goals and plans over the remaining two weeks. It is important to push the workshop/prototype before the medical mission arrives. Then, based on our discussions with the different households, and based on Mike's inclination, we want to look at what may be wrong with the BHs, and find possible ways to address these efficiently.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
January 12, 2010 - Ddegeya
We had some more conversation with John and the other Engeye staff this morning, just to throw around ideas about the workshop. At the end, we have decided that it makes more sense to approach about three or four households who either are involved with the clinic (e.g. Eddie, Peter), or live near the clinic, such that the post-trip follow-up will be more tractable. For the workshop, we also plan just to hold it for these selected households to sketch out the water treatment options available, and gauge their interest in any particular technology. Since materials (sand, etc.) are pretty heavy to carry, we will probably visit the different households individually, carry the components (sand, gravels) with us, and work together with them in the household to build the prototype (they will still be the ones doing most of the assembling).
As for the 14 households we have already visited and mentioned about the workshop, it would look bad if we did not follow through with our "promise" of some sort of workshop. Joseph is of the opinion that these households would not mind if the idea of workshop were not followed through. However, in the case our separate prototyping with the other selected households are successful, we can then revisit these 14 households again, describing our workshop technologies to them and asking about their opinions on whether they would be interested in these if we were to implement them in the future (in the manner of another survey). This would also allow us to take some water samples from the households for testing (which we have not done in our initial survey so far), and possibly allow Kevin to conduct a PSC survey on Tish's behalf (on a variety of intermediate technologies, of which our water treatment is a subclass).
We found that due to the rain yesterday, the sand pile was still wet, so we could not do any sieving this morning. Instead, we performed a run of SODIS, using two big and two small plastic bottles. We gathered water from BH4 and from P1 into each of a big-small bottle pair, left those on the south side of the sleeping quarter's corrugated roof (thanks to Mike), and would see what happens (e.g. by colifirm count).
We then operated on a cardboard box to make a simple solar-based water pasteurizer. This was not overly complicated, mainly involving cutting the cardboard box to the right dimension, and layering the interior and flaps with Al foil. The intended container of water treatment is a 5 L jerry can, which we painted black using the black paint we got in Masaka on Sunday. The jerry can was left to dry in the sun. The black paint was awful---it was not water soluble; Kevin got a lot on his hands and spent about 30 minutes washing those off, with water, soap, sponge, and then finally some paint thinner.
We then made a turbidity measurement of the water from P1, P2, and BH4 using a turbidity tube. The results, though somewhat surprising, are given as follows:
P1 (Nalongo): less than 5 NTU
BH4 (Nalongo): less than 5 NTU
P2 (bamboo forest): about 10 NTU --- the sight is mainly obscured by floating hair-like algae.
We noted that after the heavy rain yesterday, the water-gathering traffic was reduced significantly. It would be useful if we could spend a day quantifying the water-gathering data, such as the sphere of influence of Nalongo (or the other sources such as BH6/P3). But this will take time and is something we might attempt only after the more important stuff (e.g. workshop, boreholes) has been carried through satisfactorily.
In the afternoon, we started sifting the sand again, which by this time was adequately dry. However, the little remaining wetness in the sand meant a slow and painful process. Joseph was supposed to show up at 3 p.m. or so to accompany us to the selected households. However, according to Francis, Joseph felt unwell today, so we asked Francis to accompany us. We first visited the house of Njagala Bendicto. The family collects water from Nalongo (about 5 jerry cans per day), and drinks about 20 L per day. Drinking is via both tea and plain water. Water is boiled using firewood, gathered at the family's forest. The family will be able to make the workshop tomorrow at 4 p.m.
The second family is that of Namagemse Jokieria, which has 5 people, including 1 child. The family uses about 6 jerry cans of water from Nalongo, 5 L of which is for drinking, 20 L, cooking food, and 20 L, washing utensils. The family drinks both tea and plain water. Drinking water is boiled using firewood, which is bought. The family will also be able to make the workshop tomorrow at 4 p.m.
We dropped by Eddie's house, but no one was at home, so we left Francis to pass the message onto Eddie. Francis would also want us to visit Peter's house tomorrow as the fourth household for workshop.
While we were moving around with Francis, Francis got a mobile phone call from John, informing us that two people have shown up for the "workshop" today. While during our previous interviews, we told the households that John would reconfirm the workshop time, our expectation was that the workshop would be held on Tuesday, and Joseph apparently acted on this expectation in his translation/communications. We told John to tell these visitors that the workshop will take place tomorrow. If more people than the four selected households show up, we will simply have to explain to them that we are limiting the prototype tests to those who live closest to the clinic (we simply do not have enough materials to build one for every house), though these people are welcome to stay and watch.
Having gotten back to the clinic, we discovered another pile of sand that John purchased for us (we have been using a wrong pile). We first tested the old sand (from the wrong pile) by building a toy model of the slow sand filter in a 1.5-L Rwanzori mineral water bottle (with the top cut off and holes punched into the base). We piled about 0.5 cm of gravel to the bottom before heaping about 5 cm of unwashed sand to the top. The water that passed through came out much more turbid than expected. The flow rate was about 1.5 L for 8 minutes, which was satisfactory.
We then got some sand from the new pile and washed it under BH4's water 8 times, until the sand-water suspension became much more transparent. We then built a toy model using this fine sand. The first 1.5 L, which took about 5.5 minutes to fill, was still dissapointingly turbid. However, the subsequent water became much less turbid. We kept the filter running for about 8 L of water, with flow rate of about 5.5-6 minutes per 1.5 L. This seemed a much better outcome. We also tested the turbidity of the water. The original water (from a blue rain-collecting drum with somewhat dirty-looking water) had a turbidity of around 7 NTU. The first passage through the sand filter yielded water with turbidity of around 20 NTU. Subsequent passages lowered the turbidity to around 10-15 NTU. Since we did this test upon sunset, we were uncertain whether or not gradually diminishing lighting could have affected our measurements.
Kevin finally remembered to pay John for the sand and the gravel today (totaling 250,000 UGX). For some reason, the clinic did not collect a lot of electricity from the sun today (even though the morning and parts of the afternoon were relatively sunny, and it did not rain), so in the evening we had to cut back our electricity use, walking about in our headlamps. Some people were trying to do some acrobatics on the front porch. Eddie and Dora wanted to learn Chinese from Kevin; when asked why, they said that it is so that they could watch and understand kung fu movies a little better. We learnt how to pronounce water ("amazzi" in Luganda) carefully (which sounds very similar to the Luganda word for feces). The phrase of the day is "Amazzi bwe bulamu", which means that "water is life". A scouting party was sent out to get some drinks, as usual, and dinner was had at about 9:30 p.m., with some usual fares plus some sensational pastegetti with tomatoes.
As for the 14 households we have already visited and mentioned about the workshop, it would look bad if we did not follow through with our "promise" of some sort of workshop. Joseph is of the opinion that these households would not mind if the idea of workshop were not followed through. However, in the case our separate prototyping with the other selected households are successful, we can then revisit these 14 households again, describing our workshop technologies to them and asking about their opinions on whether they would be interested in these if we were to implement them in the future (in the manner of another survey). This would also allow us to take some water samples from the households for testing (which we have not done in our initial survey so far), and possibly allow Kevin to conduct a PSC survey on Tish's behalf (on a variety of intermediate technologies, of which our water treatment is a subclass).
We found that due to the rain yesterday, the sand pile was still wet, so we could not do any sieving this morning. Instead, we performed a run of SODIS, using two big and two small plastic bottles. We gathered water from BH4 and from P1 into each of a big-small bottle pair, left those on the south side of the sleeping quarter's corrugated roof (thanks to Mike), and would see what happens (e.g. by colifirm count).
We then operated on a cardboard box to make a simple solar-based water pasteurizer. This was not overly complicated, mainly involving cutting the cardboard box to the right dimension, and layering the interior and flaps with Al foil. The intended container of water treatment is a 5 L jerry can, which we painted black using the black paint we got in Masaka on Sunday. The jerry can was left to dry in the sun. The black paint was awful---it was not water soluble; Kevin got a lot on his hands and spent about 30 minutes washing those off, with water, soap, sponge, and then finally some paint thinner.
We then made a turbidity measurement of the water from P1, P2, and BH4 using a turbidity tube. The results, though somewhat surprising, are given as follows:
P1 (Nalongo): less than 5 NTU
BH4 (Nalongo): less than 5 NTU
P2 (bamboo forest): about 10 NTU --- the sight is mainly obscured by floating hair-like algae.
We noted that after the heavy rain yesterday, the water-gathering traffic was reduced significantly. It would be useful if we could spend a day quantifying the water-gathering data, such as the sphere of influence of Nalongo (or the other sources such as BH6/P3). But this will take time and is something we might attempt only after the more important stuff (e.g. workshop, boreholes) has been carried through satisfactorily.
In the afternoon, we started sifting the sand again, which by this time was adequately dry. However, the little remaining wetness in the sand meant a slow and painful process. Joseph was supposed to show up at 3 p.m. or so to accompany us to the selected households. However, according to Francis, Joseph felt unwell today, so we asked Francis to accompany us. We first visited the house of Njagala Bendicto. The family collects water from Nalongo (about 5 jerry cans per day), and drinks about 20 L per day. Drinking is via both tea and plain water. Water is boiled using firewood, gathered at the family's forest. The family will be able to make the workshop tomorrow at 4 p.m.
The second family is that of Namagemse Jokieria, which has 5 people, including 1 child. The family uses about 6 jerry cans of water from Nalongo, 5 L of which is for drinking, 20 L, cooking food, and 20 L, washing utensils. The family drinks both tea and plain water. Drinking water is boiled using firewood, which is bought. The family will also be able to make the workshop tomorrow at 4 p.m.
We dropped by Eddie's house, but no one was at home, so we left Francis to pass the message onto Eddie. Francis would also want us to visit Peter's house tomorrow as the fourth household for workshop.
While we were moving around with Francis, Francis got a mobile phone call from John, informing us that two people have shown up for the "workshop" today. While during our previous interviews, we told the households that John would reconfirm the workshop time, our expectation was that the workshop would be held on Tuesday, and Joseph apparently acted on this expectation in his translation/communications. We told John to tell these visitors that the workshop will take place tomorrow. If more people than the four selected households show up, we will simply have to explain to them that we are limiting the prototype tests to those who live closest to the clinic (we simply do not have enough materials to build one for every house), though these people are welcome to stay and watch.
Having gotten back to the clinic, we discovered another pile of sand that John purchased for us (we have been using a wrong pile). We first tested the old sand (from the wrong pile) by building a toy model of the slow sand filter in a 1.5-L Rwanzori mineral water bottle (with the top cut off and holes punched into the base). We piled about 0.5 cm of gravel to the bottom before heaping about 5 cm of unwashed sand to the top. The water that passed through came out much more turbid than expected. The flow rate was about 1.5 L for 8 minutes, which was satisfactory.
We then got some sand from the new pile and washed it under BH4's water 8 times, until the sand-water suspension became much more transparent. We then built a toy model using this fine sand. The first 1.5 L, which took about 5.5 minutes to fill, was still dissapointingly turbid. However, the subsequent water became much less turbid. We kept the filter running for about 8 L of water, with flow rate of about 5.5-6 minutes per 1.5 L. This seemed a much better outcome. We also tested the turbidity of the water. The original water (from a blue rain-collecting drum with somewhat dirty-looking water) had a turbidity of around 7 NTU. The first passage through the sand filter yielded water with turbidity of around 20 NTU. Subsequent passages lowered the turbidity to around 10-15 NTU. Since we did this test upon sunset, we were uncertain whether or not gradually diminishing lighting could have affected our measurements.
Kevin finally remembered to pay John for the sand and the gravel today (totaling 250,000 UGX). For some reason, the clinic did not collect a lot of electricity from the sun today (even though the morning and parts of the afternoon were relatively sunny, and it did not rain), so in the evening we had to cut back our electricity use, walking about in our headlamps. Some people were trying to do some acrobatics on the front porch. Eddie and Dora wanted to learn Chinese from Kevin; when asked why, they said that it is so that they could watch and understand kung fu movies a little better. We learnt how to pronounce water ("amazzi" in Luganda) carefully (which sounds very similar to the Luganda word for feces). The phrase of the day is "Amazzi bwe bulamu", which means that "water is life". A scouting party was sent out to get some drinks, as usual, and dinner was had at about 9:30 p.m., with some usual fares plus some sensational pastegetti with tomatoes.
January 11, 2010 - Ddegeya
This morning, Joseph brought us to St. Gertrude's private school. Beyond the school in the dense wood, we encountered a BH, which we think might be BH2. Nearer to the school inside a roofless building was another BH (whose cap was off), and we think that this might be BH3. Helen and Becca should double-check that our designation is correct.
According to Joseph, BH3 was built about 15 years ago, and stopped working around the year 2000. It used to give good and clean water (people used not have to wait), but dried up suddenly. Joseph thinks that it is the fault of the eucalyptus forest---at the time the BH was dug, the trees were still young, but after the trees matured, the BH dried up. The BH used to support the school and about 15 houses. When BH3 became dry, a rich family dug BH2, which was used by the school and about 20 households for maybe 3 years until it dried too. Unlike BH3, BH2 never yielded much water even at the start, and the water was coloured---Joseph thinks that this is due to the tree roots, which might compete for water. Since this BH stopped functioning, the school has increased their rain collection drums to 4 (this supplied enough water for only about 3 months in a year). When this was not enough, the school---as well as the nearby houses---now collect water from Nalongo.
We tried to take the head of BH2 apart, which looked like a Mach 3 pump according to Dave. BH2 had no chain---nothing was attached. The top flange had only 2 bolts. The middle flange had 4 long bolts. When all those were removed, it revealed a plastic sleeve (with blue interior). As we shone flashlight down, we saw some reflection. As Mike dropped a pebble down, we affirmed that there is still water at the bottom of BH2. We then visited BH3 nearer to the school. The top of the BH3 was missing, which made it somewhat of a hazard. Judging by the number of concrete rings, the borehole is at least 20 ft deep. There is no water at the bottom.
According to Joseph, beyond the forest near BH2 is another building near which an open pond can be found. He claimed that this pond is dry. Dave wanted to see this, but at this point we experienced a sudden downpour, so we took shelter in the school. During this time, Kevin asked more questions about the history of these BHs (detailed above), and had Joseph teach him some Luganda. When it became clear that the rain would not subside after about 45 minutes of waiting, we resolved to walk back to the clinic in the rain.
In order to prepare for the workshop tomorrow, we started building our Biosand filter today. The first challenge was to drill a hole on the side of the plastic container near the bottom (for the outlet). Dave brought a drill, but was unable to find the correct drill tip (Goose, the dog at the clinic, might have taken it). The clinic has a drill, but according to Francis, this has not been working. We tried to charge it up anyways. After having blown a fuse, and having waited for several hours, we still saw no signs of life in this drill. Our next plan was to take a sharp knife and cut a roughly circular opening. This proved moderately successful.
The second challenge was to drill some holes in the outlet pipe to be placed inside the container to collect filtered water. We first tried to hammer nail into the pipe's side. Then Mike found a screw and used Dave's drill to drill the screw into the pipe and back out, yielding two moderately successful holes. Then Mike got ambitious and tried to unsuccessfully drill a hole directly using another drill tip. Unfortunately, this tip somehow got stuck inside Dave's drill, rendering it unusable for drilling. We then reverted back to drilling holes with nails and a hammer. This processed was streamlined and in about an hour, we had a collector pipe with about 10 holes drilled into it.
After lunch, we took water samples from BH4 and P1 and did two Petrifilm tests of coliform/E. coli and Enterobacteria on each. We also took some "clean" water that we are drinking and did a Petrifilm test on it. We hope to have some suitable results to show tomorrow at the workshop.
In the afternoon, we found a piece of wood and made a frame for the smallest sieve (for the fine sand). We also drilled more holes to the collector tube, which now really reminds us of some woodwind musical instrument that does not function. At about 3:30 p.m., Joseph showed up, so Kevin left with him to conduct more household interviews, while Mike and Dave were left to figure out how to piece the outlet pipes together with the joints with epoxy and duct tape---hopefully a waterproof design, at least temporarily.
Four households were visited today. For three of them, the interviews were mainly conducted in English. The answer patterns matched up quite well with the translated responses we got from Joseph from earlier households, so it is quite likely that the previous answers were faithful translations and not something Joseph made up for our convenience. This still leaves the truthfulness of some answers in question (for example, if a household is embarrassed about not boiling water, the answer we get might be an affirmative, though we did implement some checks---such as by asking them to estimate the time it takes to boil certain volume of water), but well, I guess there are certain things we just can never find out by asking. Once again, where there are reasons to doubt Joseph's translation, the statement is enclosed by three asterisks ***...***.
Household 12
Mrs. Nakiwala Gerfrude lives on the Masaka-Mbarara Road past the Trading Centre, and has never been approached before for a similar interview. Her household has 9 people, 7 of whom are school children. The family uses about 5 jerry cans of water, collected mainly from P3. The family used to collect water from the nearby BH6, but it stopped functioning last year---there is something wrong with the machines. Someone constructed this BH, and the family paid no fees to use it. Sometimes the family also uses Nalongo---both P1 and BH4. The family prefers the pump, ***which gives clean water***. Nalongo is visited only during the drought season. Children make 1 trip daily to collect water in 5 jerry cans, carried on a bicycle, and it takes about 30 minutes for a return trip.
Of the 5 jerry cans of water, about 2 jerry cans are used in the kitchen. The family drinks about 10 L of water for 2 days. The family boils drinking water using firewood collected from its own forest. Water should be boiled according to doctors from Masaka/Kinoni. It takes about 20 minutes to boil 10 L of water, and the family keeps it boiling for 5 minutes in a saucepan.
The family practises rainwater collection in 2 drums. There is some gutter on the roof, but this does not cover everything. In a heavy rain like today, all the drums are full, and the water is expected to last 4 days (10 jerry cans). When there is new rain, the family sometimes pours away the old water ***because mosquitoes might be breeding inside***. The family boils rainwater. The family thinks that the rainwater is clean---just imagine that it is clean. Even if the clinic sets up a rainwater collection and storage facility, the family would still prefer gathering water from P3, because the clinic is too far.
The family would be interested in the workshop. The evening time is not so busy for the family, and it is the interviewee who will come.
Household 13
Mr. Ddungu Pauline speaks good English. He has been approached once for an interview by the Ugandan government (South County), though no mzungus (foreigners) have approached him for an interview before. There are 12 people in his family. There are 16 children, though some are married, so 8 people are living in the house. Some of these children go to school. The family carries about 6 jerry cans of water per day, using P3. The family does not use BH6 because it has a strange smell probably due to the vegetation---a smell that cannot be described. During the rainy season, this smell worsens. BH6 also does not provide enough water. Children collect water 3 times a day, travelling on foot and carrying 2 jerry cans. The distance to P3 is about 0.25 km, and it takes about 20 minutes per trip. Sometimes the family also collects water from Nalongo---P1, because P3 is not a reliable pond. In fact, P3 is dry for about 2 months every year.
During washing day, the family needs 2 additional jerry cans of water. Otherwise, cooking/kitchen takes up about 5 jerry cans. The family also drinks about 15 L of water per day, tea inclusive. The family boils water using firewood collected from its own forest. It takes about 15 minutes to boil water (for 15 L, this takes much longer---60 minutes). The family keeps the water boiling for 5 minutes---the container depends on what is available.
The family practises rainwater collection. In fact, Kevin saw a huge (about 4 m in diameter and 4 m high) concrete tank with roof gutter. Joseph speculates that the top is covered (to avoid mosquitoes), except for a small hole near the roof gutter outlet. The family informs us that the tank actually does not work well---there is leakage, and about 12 jerry cans of water can be collected when it rains heavily, yielding 3 days of water. The family collects both old and new rains without discarding the old. The family boils rainwater, because of the dust. The family would be interested in using a potential rainwater storage system at the clinic.
The family would also be interested in attending the workshop---after 4 p.m. is ideal, and the attendee can be available for about 2 hours.
Household 14
Mrs. Nalukwaga Betty lives by the Masaka-Mbarara Road beyond the Trading Centre, and speaks proficient English. Her household has 7 people, 5 of whom are school children. The family uses about 3 jerry cans of water for cloth-washing, 2 jerry cans for cooking/washing, and drinks about 3 L daily. Water is collected from P3---the water from BH6 is believed to be spoilt. The family thinks that the BH6 chain is not functioning. BH6 was built in 2003, and stopped working in 2008. No attempts have been made in fixing it. The family is also aware of BH5, which stopped working in 2002. BH5 was broken; a local engineer came but did not fix the problem. The family used to pay 500 shillings/month to use BH5 (for a couple of months before it broke), to Madina (see household 6), who used to maintain it. The family also collects water occasionally from BH4 during drought. However, it might also use water from P1 if there are many people at BH4. The family thinks that BH4 yields purer and safer water than P1, which has algae growing in it. Children carry water twice a day (morning and evening) using 2 jerry cans.
The family boils drinking water using purchased firewood, which costs about 150 shillings a piece. This translates into about 300 shillings a day for cooking and boiling. It takes about 2 hours to boil water in a kettle (I don't know if this is the interviewee misunderstanding the question or if it is a failure of an answer truthfulness check), and heat is turned off instantaneously after boiling point is reached. Boiled water is stored in different jerry cans from those used for water collection.
The family collects rainwater via several jerry cans; there is no roof gutter system. Sometimes rainwater is also stored in saucepans. During heavy rains, about 5 jerry cans of rainwater can be collected, which can provide about 1 day of water. The family boils rainwater---even though rainwater is cleaner than well water, it is still not clean enough. The family would be interested in using the clinic's potential rainwater collection and storage.
The family would be interested in attending the workshop---after 2 p.m. and for a maximum of 2 hours per day.
Household 15
Hope runs a hair salon, and speaks proficient English. Her family of 4 has 2 school children. The family requires about 5 jerry cans per day, and there are 20 L in a jerry can. The family collects water from both P3 and BH6---there is nothing wrong with BH6. The kids are too young to carry water, so they must pay someone to fetch water. The family does not purchase bottled water---this is too expensive.
The family uses about 2 jerry cans per day for washing, and half a jerry can for cooking. About 5 L is drunk daily. Water is boiled using both charcoal and/or firewood, bought, costing about 5000 shillings per month. Water in a saucepan takes about 15 minutes (the family is very unsure) to boil, and is kept boiling for 5 minutes. Boiled water is transferred to a jerry can (Kevin didn't find out if this is same or different from the jerry can used for collection).
Rainwater is collected in a drum, which yields 5 jerry cans. There is roof guttering. During heavy rains, about 10 jerry cans can be collected, yielding sufficient water for a week. The family boils rainwater but thinks that rainwater is cleaner than P3/BH6---"pure white".
The family would be interested in attending the workshops. 3-4 p.m. would be a convenient time, and the interviewee would be available for about 2 hours per day.
In the meanwhile, Dave and Mike finished assembling the outlet tube and epoxy-glued everything in place. The Biosand filter looks ready, except without the sand and the gravel.
Later in the evening, John and Joe came back from Kampala. They were expecting to bring back some medicine from JMS, but having waited for a whole day without having had their order gone through, they returned to Ddegeya. After dinner, we had a chat with John regarding our plans. Over the next few days, he will be very busy with the preparataion of the medical mission, and hence will not be able to really assist us in the workshops. He suggested that we revisit the households again with Joseph to announce the time and location of the workshop. His impression is that the majority of villagers drink water in the form of tea, which means that they would boil their water anyways---even if they had some sort of Biosand filter. People generally do not just drink "unflavoured" water as we might often do. He had thought that the community, Helen, and Becca reached an agreement last time in which we would find ways to protect the water at the source, and at first he was sceptical about the effectiveness of household water treatment. We explained that the household water treatment could be our short-term attempt at solving a problem that requires a much more long-term planning. So the bottom line is: we will not have a lot of John's help probably for the duration of our trip. Most of the translation/community interaction will have to be done with Joseph. We will talk to him tomorrow morning to see when he will be available to walk us around the village again to announce the workshop to a few households. In this light, the workshop will take place at earliest on Wednesday, and we will have it span over fewer days.
According to Joseph, BH3 was built about 15 years ago, and stopped working around the year 2000. It used to give good and clean water (people used not have to wait), but dried up suddenly. Joseph thinks that it is the fault of the eucalyptus forest---at the time the BH was dug, the trees were still young, but after the trees matured, the BH dried up. The BH used to support the school and about 15 houses. When BH3 became dry, a rich family dug BH2, which was used by the school and about 20 households for maybe 3 years until it dried too. Unlike BH3, BH2 never yielded much water even at the start, and the water was coloured---Joseph thinks that this is due to the tree roots, which might compete for water. Since this BH stopped functioning, the school has increased their rain collection drums to 4 (this supplied enough water for only about 3 months in a year). When this was not enough, the school---as well as the nearby houses---now collect water from Nalongo.
We tried to take the head of BH2 apart, which looked like a Mach 3 pump according to Dave. BH2 had no chain---nothing was attached. The top flange had only 2 bolts. The middle flange had 4 long bolts. When all those were removed, it revealed a plastic sleeve (with blue interior). As we shone flashlight down, we saw some reflection. As Mike dropped a pebble down, we affirmed that there is still water at the bottom of BH2. We then visited BH3 nearer to the school. The top of the BH3 was missing, which made it somewhat of a hazard. Judging by the number of concrete rings, the borehole is at least 20 ft deep. There is no water at the bottom.
According to Joseph, beyond the forest near BH2 is another building near which an open pond can be found. He claimed that this pond is dry. Dave wanted to see this, but at this point we experienced a sudden downpour, so we took shelter in the school. During this time, Kevin asked more questions about the history of these BHs (detailed above), and had Joseph teach him some Luganda. When it became clear that the rain would not subside after about 45 minutes of waiting, we resolved to walk back to the clinic in the rain.
In order to prepare for the workshop tomorrow, we started building our Biosand filter today. The first challenge was to drill a hole on the side of the plastic container near the bottom (for the outlet). Dave brought a drill, but was unable to find the correct drill tip (Goose, the dog at the clinic, might have taken it). The clinic has a drill, but according to Francis, this has not been working. We tried to charge it up anyways. After having blown a fuse, and having waited for several hours, we still saw no signs of life in this drill. Our next plan was to take a sharp knife and cut a roughly circular opening. This proved moderately successful.
The second challenge was to drill some holes in the outlet pipe to be placed inside the container to collect filtered water. We first tried to hammer nail into the pipe's side. Then Mike found a screw and used Dave's drill to drill the screw into the pipe and back out, yielding two moderately successful holes. Then Mike got ambitious and tried to unsuccessfully drill a hole directly using another drill tip. Unfortunately, this tip somehow got stuck inside Dave's drill, rendering it unusable for drilling. We then reverted back to drilling holes with nails and a hammer. This processed was streamlined and in about an hour, we had a collector pipe with about 10 holes drilled into it.
After lunch, we took water samples from BH4 and P1 and did two Petrifilm tests of coliform/E. coli and Enterobacteria on each. We also took some "clean" water that we are drinking and did a Petrifilm test on it. We hope to have some suitable results to show tomorrow at the workshop.
In the afternoon, we found a piece of wood and made a frame for the smallest sieve (for the fine sand). We also drilled more holes to the collector tube, which now really reminds us of some woodwind musical instrument that does not function. At about 3:30 p.m., Joseph showed up, so Kevin left with him to conduct more household interviews, while Mike and Dave were left to figure out how to piece the outlet pipes together with the joints with epoxy and duct tape---hopefully a waterproof design, at least temporarily.
Four households were visited today. For three of them, the interviews were mainly conducted in English. The answer patterns matched up quite well with the translated responses we got from Joseph from earlier households, so it is quite likely that the previous answers were faithful translations and not something Joseph made up for our convenience. This still leaves the truthfulness of some answers in question (for example, if a household is embarrassed about not boiling water, the answer we get might be an affirmative, though we did implement some checks---such as by asking them to estimate the time it takes to boil certain volume of water), but well, I guess there are certain things we just can never find out by asking. Once again, where there are reasons to doubt Joseph's translation, the statement is enclosed by three asterisks ***...***.
Household 12
Mrs. Nakiwala Gerfrude lives on the Masaka-Mbarara Road past the Trading Centre, and has never been approached before for a similar interview. Her household has 9 people, 7 of whom are school children. The family uses about 5 jerry cans of water, collected mainly from P3. The family used to collect water from the nearby BH6, but it stopped functioning last year---there is something wrong with the machines. Someone constructed this BH, and the family paid no fees to use it. Sometimes the family also uses Nalongo---both P1 and BH4. The family prefers the pump, ***which gives clean water***. Nalongo is visited only during the drought season. Children make 1 trip daily to collect water in 5 jerry cans, carried on a bicycle, and it takes about 30 minutes for a return trip.
Of the 5 jerry cans of water, about 2 jerry cans are used in the kitchen. The family drinks about 10 L of water for 2 days. The family boils drinking water using firewood collected from its own forest. Water should be boiled according to doctors from Masaka/Kinoni. It takes about 20 minutes to boil 10 L of water, and the family keeps it boiling for 5 minutes in a saucepan.
The family practises rainwater collection in 2 drums. There is some gutter on the roof, but this does not cover everything. In a heavy rain like today, all the drums are full, and the water is expected to last 4 days (10 jerry cans). When there is new rain, the family sometimes pours away the old water ***because mosquitoes might be breeding inside***. The family boils rainwater. The family thinks that the rainwater is clean---just imagine that it is clean. Even if the clinic sets up a rainwater collection and storage facility, the family would still prefer gathering water from P3, because the clinic is too far.
The family would be interested in the workshop. The evening time is not so busy for the family, and it is the interviewee who will come.
Household 13
Mr. Ddungu Pauline speaks good English. He has been approached once for an interview by the Ugandan government (South County), though no mzungus (foreigners) have approached him for an interview before. There are 12 people in his family. There are 16 children, though some are married, so 8 people are living in the house. Some of these children go to school. The family carries about 6 jerry cans of water per day, using P3. The family does not use BH6 because it has a strange smell probably due to the vegetation---a smell that cannot be described. During the rainy season, this smell worsens. BH6 also does not provide enough water. Children collect water 3 times a day, travelling on foot and carrying 2 jerry cans. The distance to P3 is about 0.25 km, and it takes about 20 minutes per trip. Sometimes the family also collects water from Nalongo---P1, because P3 is not a reliable pond. In fact, P3 is dry for about 2 months every year.
During washing day, the family needs 2 additional jerry cans of water. Otherwise, cooking/kitchen takes up about 5 jerry cans. The family also drinks about 15 L of water per day, tea inclusive. The family boils water using firewood collected from its own forest. It takes about 15 minutes to boil water (for 15 L, this takes much longer---60 minutes). The family keeps the water boiling for 5 minutes---the container depends on what is available.
The family practises rainwater collection. In fact, Kevin saw a huge (about 4 m in diameter and 4 m high) concrete tank with roof gutter. Joseph speculates that the top is covered (to avoid mosquitoes), except for a small hole near the roof gutter outlet. The family informs us that the tank actually does not work well---there is leakage, and about 12 jerry cans of water can be collected when it rains heavily, yielding 3 days of water. The family collects both old and new rains without discarding the old. The family boils rainwater, because of the dust. The family would be interested in using a potential rainwater storage system at the clinic.
The family would also be interested in attending the workshop---after 4 p.m. is ideal, and the attendee can be available for about 2 hours.
Household 14
Mrs. Nalukwaga Betty lives by the Masaka-Mbarara Road beyond the Trading Centre, and speaks proficient English. Her household has 7 people, 5 of whom are school children. The family uses about 3 jerry cans of water for cloth-washing, 2 jerry cans for cooking/washing, and drinks about 3 L daily. Water is collected from P3---the water from BH6 is believed to be spoilt. The family thinks that the BH6 chain is not functioning. BH6 was built in 2003, and stopped working in 2008. No attempts have been made in fixing it. The family is also aware of BH5, which stopped working in 2002. BH5 was broken; a local engineer came but did not fix the problem. The family used to pay 500 shillings/month to use BH5 (for a couple of months before it broke), to Madina (see household 6), who used to maintain it. The family also collects water occasionally from BH4 during drought. However, it might also use water from P1 if there are many people at BH4. The family thinks that BH4 yields purer and safer water than P1, which has algae growing in it. Children carry water twice a day (morning and evening) using 2 jerry cans.
The family boils drinking water using purchased firewood, which costs about 150 shillings a piece. This translates into about 300 shillings a day for cooking and boiling. It takes about 2 hours to boil water in a kettle (I don't know if this is the interviewee misunderstanding the question or if it is a failure of an answer truthfulness check), and heat is turned off instantaneously after boiling point is reached. Boiled water is stored in different jerry cans from those used for water collection.
The family collects rainwater via several jerry cans; there is no roof gutter system. Sometimes rainwater is also stored in saucepans. During heavy rains, about 5 jerry cans of rainwater can be collected, which can provide about 1 day of water. The family boils rainwater---even though rainwater is cleaner than well water, it is still not clean enough. The family would be interested in using the clinic's potential rainwater collection and storage.
The family would be interested in attending the workshop---after 2 p.m. and for a maximum of 2 hours per day.
Household 15
Hope runs a hair salon, and speaks proficient English. Her family of 4 has 2 school children. The family requires about 5 jerry cans per day, and there are 20 L in a jerry can. The family collects water from both P3 and BH6---there is nothing wrong with BH6. The kids are too young to carry water, so they must pay someone to fetch water. The family does not purchase bottled water---this is too expensive.
The family uses about 2 jerry cans per day for washing, and half a jerry can for cooking. About 5 L is drunk daily. Water is boiled using both charcoal and/or firewood, bought, costing about 5000 shillings per month. Water in a saucepan takes about 15 minutes (the family is very unsure) to boil, and is kept boiling for 5 minutes. Boiled water is transferred to a jerry can (Kevin didn't find out if this is same or different from the jerry can used for collection).
Rainwater is collected in a drum, which yields 5 jerry cans. There is roof guttering. During heavy rains, about 10 jerry cans can be collected, yielding sufficient water for a week. The family boils rainwater but thinks that rainwater is cleaner than P3/BH6---"pure white".
The family would be interested in attending the workshops. 3-4 p.m. would be a convenient time, and the interviewee would be available for about 2 hours per day.
In the meanwhile, Dave and Mike finished assembling the outlet tube and epoxy-glued everything in place. The Biosand filter looks ready, except without the sand and the gravel.
Later in the evening, John and Joe came back from Kampala. They were expecting to bring back some medicine from JMS, but having waited for a whole day without having had their order gone through, they returned to Ddegeya. After dinner, we had a chat with John regarding our plans. Over the next few days, he will be very busy with the preparataion of the medical mission, and hence will not be able to really assist us in the workshops. He suggested that we revisit the households again with Joseph to announce the time and location of the workshop. His impression is that the majority of villagers drink water in the form of tea, which means that they would boil their water anyways---even if they had some sort of Biosand filter. People generally do not just drink "unflavoured" water as we might often do. He had thought that the community, Helen, and Becca reached an agreement last time in which we would find ways to protect the water at the source, and at first he was sceptical about the effectiveness of household water treatment. We explained that the household water treatment could be our short-term attempt at solving a problem that requires a much more long-term planning. So the bottom line is: we will not have a lot of John's help probably for the duration of our trip. Most of the translation/community interaction will have to be done with Joseph. We will talk to him tomorrow morning to see when he will be available to walk us around the village again to announce the workshop to a few households. In this light, the workshop will take place at earliest on Wednesday, and we will have it span over fewer days.
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