A bit of an update

Sorry for the lack of updates for the past 10 weeks or so...

The last 2 months and a bit have been extremely busy, and at times tense... Busy because we´ve just kept on working on the project, and tense thanks to the rather unfortunate and unpleasant dispute that we continue to have with the directors of our former NGO.

Here is basically what we´ve been up to...

New work site - after working in front of a local pastor´s house for nearly 4 months, it became apparent that we were no longer welcome (a new NGO was coming to town and they were going to occupy our space). After about a week of trying to find a suitable worksite to rent, finally got one for free, thanks to a sweet deal with the mayor´s office that came with free transportation for our filters (we have to install the maximum number possible while properly educating the users... sounds like a plan).

CAWST course refresher - In late March, Diana Frost, a CAWST international advisor, came to Camiri, Bolivia (a fairly large town in the south of the department of Santa Cruz) to teach some local NGO´s about the biosand filter. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity to send our (then) employees to the course to make sure that what we were teaching them was correct. Janaki and I also ended up joining the course for the last couple days, and although we couldn´t get away for long enough to really explore the area, it was a nice change in scenery from our regular Ascensión-Santa Cruz stomping ground. We found the course useful, but discouraging at the same time, because it seems that CAWST knows about as much about issues that one may encounter with the new flow rate as we do...

New molds - One thing we learned at the CAWST course, was that the stupid molds that were giving us so much trouble when we worked with the old organization were worse than we had thought... after looking at them Diana informed us that they did not have the correct measurements and that the walls on the filters that they produced were way too thin... part of the reasons our filters always broke...

Even before we knew this we had already started making new ones... a very long process that started with buying large planks of sheet metal in Santa Cruz in early march, transporting them to Ascensión in buses (a story in and of itself) and spending lots of time with welders as they worked with them.... as I write this, they are just finishing up... making it more than 2 months to get 3 molds made...

On the bright side: The two molds we have so far are fantastic! Of 19 filter boxes we have poured 19 filters have worked.... it has been a little less frustrating than our 45% success rate with the other molds.

New employees - After three months of working with us, and going to Camiri to become an expert, Mariano, left the organization to become an illegal motorcycle-taxi driver. I suppose to earn more money...

So... we moved on and hired 2 new employees, both of whom bring a lot of construction experience and enthusiasm to learn. One of whom has lived here his whole life and has worked with other NGOs in the area and thus brings a lot of useful ideas and local knowledge.

Within two weeks of working with these guys, we had solved the flow rate problem (thanks to some good fine sand and a lot of work), and with good, sturdy filter boxes (thanks to 2 new molds).... we were ready to install filters in the homes of Ascensión de Guarayos.

And as I write this we have 14 filters installed (more details to come)....

Photo: The course in Camiri. The woman in the blue shirt by the filter in the middle is Diana Frost, who led the course, and is now one of the BCC Water Network's board members (January, 2008).