Clean Water for Haiti - about filters and health training

Ceramic Water Filters

Ceramic Water Filters are a low-tech solution to the problems of water pollution that threaten a third of the worlds population.

Potters for Peace founded in Nicaragua, in 1986 is a network of volunteers, supporters, educators, technicians and potters that work mainly in Central America and abroad with ceramic water filter projects all over the world.

Traveling the world and teaching the fabrication of low-cost ceramic water filters is what PFP has been doing since 1998, bringing cleaner, potable water to those who need it most.

Low-cost colloidal silver-enhanced ceramic water purifiers have shown in the field that they eliminate 99.88% of most water born disease agents.

Ceramic water filters are a very simple design; a pressed bucket shape 11 W x 10 D, made from a combustible of some kind (such as rice husks or local sawdust) and a local terra-cotta clay.

Milled and screened, the combustible material is burned out in the firing, leaving fine pores, then coated with colloidal silver.

The bacterial properties of the silver and the fine pores create and effective filter.

Between one and three liters of potable water can be effectively filtered per hour with a fine tuned firing process, and the final cost is between 10-15U$ per unit, with replacement filters costing only 4U$ dollars.

Ceramic water filters are manufactured to accommodate over the top of a five-gallon bucket with a spicket for water collection.

While the transportation and production costs will tend to vary from country to country, three or four workers in a basic factory could produce around 50 ceramic water filters a day.

Ceramic water filters are a low-tech solution to cleansing dirty drinking water, a solution that could save the lives of children the world over.

Water Softening.

WATER SOFTENING!

The presence of hardness salts (calcium and magnesium ions) in the make up

water supplies to boilers, cooling and process waters can have a serious impact on their performance. Loss of heat transfer in boilers and poor cooling in re-circulating cooling systems results in an increase in both energy and water consumption, and an increase in operating costs.

The reliable Derwent standard range effectively removes these hardness salts and provides a valuable return on your investment.

Standard range:

Model 132 - Water Softeners up to 5m3/hr
Model 230/250 - Water Softeners up to 15m3/hr
Model 360/LF - Normal-Flow Water Softeners up to 20m3/hr
Model 360/HF - High-Flow Water Softeners up to 50m3/hr

The standard range of units provides service flow rates from 0.65m3/hour to 50 m3/hour, and configuring the units in a duplex or triplex system will provide a further increase in design flow rates.

The water softeners have capacities which vary from 4.3m3 to 420m3 with a total input hardness level of 200ppm expressed as calcium carbonate.

The water softeners use the well-proven "Ion Exchange" process to convert the hard water ions of calcium and magnesium to sodium ions. The resultant water to service is typically less than 4 ppm total hardness.

Derwent Water Softeners have several different control options for instigating automatic plant regeneration:

• Water meter control - regenerates after a specified volume of water by counting electrical pulses from the meter supplied with the softener
• Time-clock control - regenerates at regular pre-set time intervals
• Microprocessor Control System programmed for water hardness and flow rate

The softener vessels are of a seamless pressure vessel in GRP construction with moulded polyethylene inner and glass fibre reinforced wound outer shell for durability and long life.

The control valves are of the hydraulic double piston multiport type. Valves can be "top mount" or "side mount" entry for increased flow capacity.

The Derwent range of softening units have several options of salt/brining systems:

Single brine tank
Combined salt and brine tank for higher salt usage bulk salt systems.

Raw water break tanks, booster pump sets, level control systems and other ancillary equipment are available as standard.

Typical Boiler Uses: Boiler make up for low pressure boilers
Laundries
Brewing/soft drinks
Blended for process waters in high hardness areas
Dyeing
Food processing
Cooling tower make-up

Haiti water shortage 'critical'

Clean water is the most urgent priority, aid workers say

The contamination of water supplies by rotting human and animal corpses was the greatest danger, said Gordon Weiss, emergencies spokesman at Unicef.

"What we fear most is the spread of water-borne diseases - they can kill children very quickly," he told BBC News Online.

The distribution of clean water, purification chemicals, oral rehydration salts, basic medical supplies and replacement school materials was the priority for Unicef, he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3683642.stm

TED - Lifesaver Water Bottle

SeWatch sewege systems

SeWatch - wastewater and sewage wireless monitoring system...Manholes...haha

SeWatch™ - The wastewater monitoring system network from Telematics Wireless, provides a wireless system-wide reporting solution for CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) and SSO (Sanitary Sewer Overflow) discharge or overflow.

SeWatch™ SCADA technology monitors and handles discharge of untreated water, sewer, storm water, waste water, solids or sludge, all along municipal ,industrial or any domestic sewage network.
SeWatch™ system makes sewer treatment easier and cheaper, keeping enviroment cleaner.

SeWatch™ SCADA includes:

Water-level sensors for sewer system manholes.

Remote Terminal Units (RTU) for data capture with built-in wireless communications.

Primary battery or solar-powered wireless relays/nodes, reader/gateway unit for interfacing to a Network.

A monitoring and Controling Management application running on PC or server, which alerts on screen or via SMS about manhole overflow and spillovers.

How SeWatch™ works?

For more details, contact Telematics engineer !

SeWatch™ sensors

The Wastewater monitoring system network from Telematics Wireless, provides a system-wide solution which includes: water-level sensors for sewer system manholes connected to Remote Terminal Units (RTU) for data capture with built-in wireless communications, primary battery or solar-powered wireless relays/nodes, reader/gateway unit for interfacing to a Network, and a Monitor and Control Management application running on PC or server.

SeWatch™ wireless in-manhole units (RTUs)

The sewer-located units (RTUs) are battery-powered. This reduces cost dramatically by not requiring any electric cabling through the sewer system and enables rapid implementation of the system. The installation does not require any modification of the manhole cavity or the cover. The communications network and the RTUs, broadcast over unlicensed ISM bands which do not incur airtime charges. With manhole cover closed, RTU transmissions reach wireless relays at a distance of several tens of meters.

SeWatch wireless Relays/nodes

System wireless relays constitute the backbone of SeWatch network. Depending on the deployment conditions, relays are powered either by primary battery that last for several years, or by solar-powered battery (see picture). The network can be easily expanded to incorporate additional sewers. When a wireless node in a new part of the sewer system is added, it automatically connects to the wireless network, seamlessly integrating into the existing network topography. It sends its data to the network management control server at the Network Operations Center (NOC). If a malfunction occurs at one of the wireless nodes, an alarm is sent to the NOC informing the shift manager of the problematic network element.
The network transmits real-time information about the status of the sewer system section. The network contains self-testing elements to ensure constant communication, and identification and reporting procedures which are monitored at the NOC.

The specific configuration of the Wireless relay/node and Wireless Reader/Gateway depends on the deployment topology, e.g. distance between the wireless nodes, readers etc.
Thus the Network backbone configuration can either be a wireless mesh network of the nodes,
or a wide-area star-type communication network:
In the mesh configuration, wireless nodes communicate with each other to relay the data to the closest Gateway. From there it is further distributed via public (GPRS) network. In this configuration, solar-powered nodes are used due to the “heavy” relayed traffic. In the star-type configuration, each wireless relay communicates directly with one of the network’s readers, strategically spread over the coverage area. These readers are further interfaced with GPRS network to deliver the data to the NOC.

Network Operations Center (NOC)

The server at the Network Operations Center enables graphical display of the dynamic picture of the water levels throughout the sewer system pipes and manholes, with warnings of any problems or unusual readouts. concering water or wastewater overflow or discharge.
Every system alarm, including warnings that are defined as serious, is shown on the screen and can optionally be sent to shift managers and technicians via SMS text messaging service.

Anupam Mishra: The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting