Scrapheap Challenge

Our project, Scrapheap Challenge has been put together to cover all the ideas and prototypes that have been designed to make low-technology equipment largely from scrap or discarded materials.

So far, we have:

• Water filter and purifier
• Methane collector (with fertiliser by-product as a bonus)
  
• Rainwater collection
• Cheap bio-diesel
• Hydrogen cell

All these systems will be built and tested at out River Cottage Kenya plot in Kisii - as soon as we have funds to carry out this work.

When we have proved that they work, with tweeking as needed, their concepts will be passed on to other NGOs and communities throughout Kenya and further on, depending upon how successful we are in promoting them (and us!).

You can help by spreading the word and/or making a donation using the PayPal button on the right.

Please, please help us.

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.