Water System for Developing Countries / Disaster Relief Made with Local Materials

As the equipment builder of the team, I was responsible for building the treadle pump, the sand filter tank, the hand pump, and generating the instructions for each equipment. Each team member was responsible for certain parts of the water purification system, but everyone worked cohesively on all parts of the design when assistance was necessary. The original design for the treadle pump was a two-man powered pump which discharged water at 15 gallons per minute. Since our system only required less than half of the flow rate, and required another person to operate the bicycle, the pump was redesigned as a one-man powered pump which discharges water at five gallons per minute. The treadle pump consists of two pistons which can draw and discharge water. One piston will draw water from a well and discharge it to the sand filter, while the other piston will draw water from the sand filter and discharge it to an empty container for further treatment. Once the water is treated, a hand pump will draw clean water from a storage reservoir. The hand pump was assembled using PVC parts found in a local hardware store. The hand pump can also discharge water at five gallons per minute. The experiment for the treadle pump was conducted with the assistance from Mr. Hasan. Each piston was tested three times for the volume and the number of strokes at time intervals ranging from 30 to 120 seconds. The same procedure was followed for the experiment with the hand pump. The sand filter was assembled using an 18 gallon plastic bucket, all-purpose gravel, all-purpose sand, a PVC mechanism, and wool felt cut in specific dimensions. Before testing for filtering capability, the sand was cleaned by pumping clean water through the filter for approximately five hours. Once the sand filter was ready for testing, water containing dirt and other natural debris was poured into the filter. Three trials were performed and three samples were collected before and after running it through the sand filter. The turbidity was tested using a turbidimeter and the turbidity level of all samples were below five NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units) which is the maximum turbidity level allowed for drinking water. The pictorial instructions for the treadle pump, sand filter, and the hand pump were prepared using computer software such as Paint and photographs taken when each instruments were assembled. The instructions were captioned in English along with dimensions indicated in English units. This research opportunity has provided great hands-on experience as well as vision for the future as a development worker. My current goal for the future is to work in the oil field service industry as research and development scientist. In the future, I wish to travel to developing countries, especially the countries in the horn of Africa to help the underprivileged people. Knowing how to build a system that provides sanitary water for a whole village is a significant advantage to save lives as a worker in the missionary field