Projects
THE COMMUNITY
The necessity of clean water in Socorro, a community of 450 people in rural Guatemala, was first identified by a medical NGO working in the community. A high prevalence of waterborne illness caused by pathogen-contaminated water was observed primarily in children. While Socorro has a water distribution system, the source river water only passes through a series unmaintained sedimentation basins before reaching households. These basins contain noticeable contamination, including algae, fish and dirt.
THE PROJECT
Point-of-use biosand filters were determined to be the most effective water treatment option for Socorro. In December 2009, local concrete workers began constructing filters with training from project members and the partnering NGO. Filters were distributed to each household in the community, along with covered buckets and educational materials. Additionally, educational workshops were arranged to teach proper filter use, maintenance, and hygiene practices to help prevent illness. A partnership with local social workers will ensure continued education in the community.
Presently, families and physicians in Socorro have identified a dramatic reduction in diarrheal illness as a result of filter use.
CONTINUED WORK
The project will continue to focus on ensuring an improvement in health for the people of Socorro and the surrounding area. The team continues to travel to conduct house-to-house visits reinforcing proper filter use and perform maintenance on existing filters. Construction workers in Socorro are still producing filters for the surrounding area and new workers are being trained by our partner NGO to work in different communities, making a major focus of future work ensuring these projects are conducted properly.
Since summer 2009, the project has also been conducting research on improvements in filter design to aid removal of waterborne pathogens. Published experiments at UIUC labs have shown promising results, but further research in the community is required before widespread implementation. Continuing work will focus on building a collaboration with Universidad del Valle, Guatemala’s largest private university, and partner NGOs to conduct experiments in the community and organize health surveys to evaluate the improvement in health experienced by filter users.