PURIFY WATER in KENYA

Using direct solar energy
or boiling
or distillation

Safe drinking water using direct solar energy
ultra violet rays from the sun for six hours

UV-A rays from the sun, (Ultraviolet-A, longwave, 315-400 nm), will terminate harmful bacteria, parasites, and viruses in water, given enough sun exposure according to the World Health Organisation.

Hellen at the Hellen Foundation putting out clear plastic 2 liter bottles filled with water, put on the roof or laid out in the sun for 6 hours will make the water safe to drink.. You can place bottles on a corrugated iron roof facing the sun.. The corrugated iron roof will increase the water temperature. The sun's ultraviolet rays will kill the bacteria in the water.

List of bacteria, virus and parasites terminated by UVA sunlight exposure for six hours

 

LEGIONNAIRES DISEASE

Legionnaires disease bacteria grow in ...STILL WATER.. at a temperature range of 33 to 50 degrees centigrade. These bacteria are not well known but there have been deaths from storing water in this temperature range such as air conditioning water towers on large buildings and ,, ordinary domestic hot water cylinders and in many countries the water temperature in the hot water cylinder must be raised by solar energy or electric heating elements once per day to 60 degrees centigrade..That is for most of the world. LEGIONNAIRES DISEASE is not well known in Africa but can kill adults and children and should be regarded as a serious health problem..

Water in this luke-warm temperature range is often obtained by putting a black jerry can full of water out in ...PART SUN PART SHADE.... Legionnaires disease bacteria can grow inside the jerry can water and should be destroyed

Shake the can of water
Common dish washing liquid kills Legionnaires disease bacteria
Raising the water temperature to 60 degrees centigrade kills Legionnaires disease bacteria

 

SAFE DRINKING WATER USING A FEW DROPS OF BLEACH

‘Center for Disease Control’ instructions for safe drinking water with bleach:

From the CDC, Centers for Disease Control, “If you don’t have clean, safe, bottled water and if boiling is not possible, you can make water safer to drink by using a disinfectant, such as unscented household chlorine bleach”

Add 1/8 teaspoon (or 8 drops; about 0.625 milliliters) of unscented liquid household chlorine (5–6%) bleach for each gallon of clear water (or 2 drops of bleach for each liter or each quart of clear water).

Add 1/4 teaspoon (or 16 drops; about 1.50 milliliters) of bleach for each gallon of cloudy water (or 4 drops of bleach for each liter or each quart of cloudy water).

Stir the mixture well.
Let it stand for 30 minutes or longer before you use it.
Store the disinfected water in clean, disinfected containers with tight covers.
IF YOU USE TOO MUCH BLEACH THE WATER WILL TASTE HORRIBLE AND WILL MAKE YOU SICK.

BOIL WATER TO MAKE SAFE FOR DRINKING

Use an old cooking pot with a lid. Put the lid on then paint the pot and lid with black paint. Do not paint the bottom of the pot.. Do not paint the handle. Do not put any paint on the inside. The reason is some paints contain lead and are poisonous for people. Fill the pot with water, place in the sun on a folded up towel. In about an hour the water will be hot. Boil for 30 minutes.

Using clean pots this is a good way to purify water and is quite fast. For safety put these pots on a folded towel on the ground or on a small table in a safe area so children or anyone cannot accidentally tip over a pot of hot water. Keep the pot handles inside not sticking out where can be knocked over.. A hot water burn goes in deep and the only way to stop it burning is with cold water so have some cold water nearby and a cloth to press on the burn. Boil water for 30 minutes.

OTHER WAYS TO PURIFY WATER OR TO SEPARATE GOOD WATER FROM BAD WATER

Purify water by distillation

(1) What does DISTILLATION mean
It means to seperate (distill) good water from bad water using heat. Heat water using any heat. Electricity, gas, wood fire or solar energy. Collect the water vapour. Cool the water vapour back to water. All the impurities and bacteria are left behind and the distilled water is 100 percent pure and good to drink or cooking. This is usually put into ships life boats so if the ship sinks and people are in the life boats they have equipment to convert sea water into good drinking water.

(2) You can dig a hole or a well down in the ground until you hit water but it may be very bad water especially if it is near a toilet pit. You cannot drink that water but you can distill it and get pure water

(3) Nearly all trees in nature take in many gallons of water from the ground through their roots and transpire many gallons of water out of their leaves every day. You can collect some of the water using a plastic bag. You should distill that water unless you know it is not poisonous.

(4) if you live near the ocean you can distill salt water and get pure fresh drinking water.

(5) You can dig a hole in the ground. Put in bad water. Let the sun heat the water and collect the pure distilled water. .

SIXTEENTH CENTURY

WATER DISTILLER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modern distillation plant using electricity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



TRANSPIRATION
 Most plants take up water from their roots and use what they need to grow and then transpire or get rid of water they dont need out their leaves. A fully grown tree transpires hundreds of litres of water per day. You can get some of that water by putting a plastic bag over some branches, tying the bag closed and put a clean stone in the bag like the picture. Over the day some water will transpire from the tree into the bag. Some plants are poisonous so you have to know which trees are suitable for fresh water. Everyone who goes into the desert always take plastic bags and knows which trees or bushes are suitable

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Tie a plastic bag over a bush branch with a clean stone at the bottom. Leave all day. You get water in the bottom of the bag.

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HANG UP A FINE NET LIKE SHADE CLOTH FOR THE GARDEN AND COLLECT DEW FROM EARLY MORNING MISTS.

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Here is way to get water from vegetation. You do not get much water
Maybe half a cup of water for one day.

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FASTER DISTILLATION

Put a folded dry towel under a black steel frying pan or roasting pan. The towel stops heat escaping from the bottom of the pan. Wrap one or two dry towels around the outside of the fry pan. The towels stop heat escaping from the sides of the frying pan.

..

This one is wide and shallow and more area........This one is narrow
More surface area means much faster evaporation.

Put a dry towel under the water dish so it can get as hot as possible and not loose heat from the bottom to the ground.

To put a thin layer of bad water in the metal water tray use a funnel and a plastic tube and pour in a cupful of bad water at a time. If your distiller is evaporating the water quickly that means you have built it very well with no leaks for the evaporated water to escape so you can add more water to a depth of 6 mm or 1/4 inch.

Distill unit for the ground

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Now you have a very good and fast and simple way to turn bad water into good pure drinking water not difficult not expensive and very important for heath for you and your family but where to get the bad water. That is the problem.

(1) Where there are trees or bush is a good start. Trees must have water. They take in water through their roots and can transpire hundreds of litres of water per day from their leaves.. Anywhere there are trees there is the strong chance of water. You can dig a hole near the trees to see if there is ground water not too far underground or use the plastic bag and catch some of the water trees transpire from their leaves..

(2) If your area gets fog you can put up a fine screen which catches droplets of water from the fog or morning mist.

(3) Some industry near you might use large amounts of water for washing up and then dispose of that water. It may be very dirty water but distilling water leaves all the bacteria behind and you get is fresh water fit for drinking. even water that shops and factories use to wash the floors and clean the windows which is waste water can be collected and distilled and it becomes fresh and good for drinking.. Maybe there is a car washing place nearby. You can collect waste water and put it through the distillery to get pure distilled water fit for drinking or cooking food. .Because you are drinking this distilled water you have to do it properly. Do it yourself. Do not leave it to people not trained to distill water properly and safely.

(4) When there is a serious drought and you need water the sun shines hot every day so your distilling of bad water, which uses solar energy, can go ahead.

(5) Water comes from the high country and the mountains down the rivers and out to sea . A lot of water in Kenya goes underground. There are some large fresh water lakes. Recently a vast underground water supply was found in Kenya in the Turkana region. There may be underground water near you especially if there are trees nearby.. Water that falls as rain does not stay on top of the ground. The soil is porous. water trikles down underground to a place called the water table. Can be 2 feet underground or 6 feet underground or 100 feet underground. Look for a dry stream bed. Water was there in the rains and a good chance there is water a few feet maybe six feet underground.

(6) There are other ways to purify water. Put water in a plastic PET bottle 1-2 litre size lay out in the sun for 6 hours . Another way is 6 drops of household bleach in one gallon of suspect water. This is what they do at public swiming bathes to purify the water. Farmers do this in the water tanks that store water from the roof. Putting dirty water in a plastic bottle out in the sun or using bleach will not remove all the bacteria and dirt.

People need water every day at least 2 litres better to have 3-4 litres and must be clean water with no germs. Boiling water has been done for many years and kills most germs. Laying water out in the sun in plastic bottles kills most germs. Sand filter is good kills most germs needs some skill to get the fine to course sand and small gravel and large gravel arranged. Distillation unit removes all germs even makes salt water pure but is slow. About 1-2 litres per day from one frying pan size distiller. You can make a larger distiller

Distilling water to get pure water is good but there is a problem. Drinking very pure water for a long time 2-3 months or longer is bad for you. The water is too pure. Your body needs some minerals that are in ordinary water and these minerals are missing from highly purified water but you get minerals from fruit and vegetables. If you make and drink very pure water for a long time ask a doctor or chemist about minerals.

Laying bottle in the sun is very good

 




Richard Williams
remp@ps.gen.nz