Cheap, Clean Drinking Water

A precious commodity in Kenya, in town as well in rural areas. Drinking water has to be boiled, even if it comes out of the tap, and in the area of Nairobi where I stay, it tastes earthy.

That got the Tool-using Think-maker in me to look at a way to filter and purify water so that it was not only safe to drink, but also palatable.

Of course, according to my philosophy, anything I design has to be made from scrap or discarded materials, or at the least, readily available cheap materials, and I have finally finished!

The purification side of things uses the Sun. This is well-known, but little used technology. When water left in the sun for 6 hours, all pathogens are killed. The filtration bit is just as easy to use, and is effective in removing any foreign body larger than 100 microns, so that's eggs, grit, larvae, etc.

The final build depends upon available material, but can be easily modified to account for local local materials.

Just need a bit of funding to get this project out into the big wide World - well, Kenya, anyway.

The Bubble has a leak ...

The best laid plans ... and all that. In my last blog, I was over the Moon about how clever we were in funding our community work by opening a business. A good idea in theory, as long as the tide of luck is running your way.

Ours isn't. We are located in a part of town that the council has decided to "clean up". That must be a good thing, you say. And I agree, as long as it doesn't drive the pedestrian traffic away from your front door, which this clean-up has.

I can't blame the council. I have always found Kisii a fascinating place, chaotic, dusty, shambolic even, but it has its charm. A big, new bus terminal was built, but no one ever used it, until now. The council has decreed that all buses, coaches and matatus must go to the station to disgorge their passengers.

So, at our end of town, which was a traditional if unofficial matatu stand is now virtually deserted, and so is our café.

I am not sure where we go from here.