ClaySure - The Project

Project Description:

Water from Pipe

Establishment of a Factory: ClaySure works with local potters to establish water filter factories in developing nations. Factories may produce anywhere from 25 to 1000 filters per day, depending on funding and filter promotion. The ClaySure team trains potters to prepare raw materials, establish a proper constituent ratio, use filter-making equipment, build down-draft kilns, use cones and pyrometers to control kiln temperature gradient, promote filter technology, and much more.
Hygiene and Sanitation Education: ClaySure encourages potters to provide hygiene and sanitation education materials to all filter recipients. Healthy living habits such as hand washing and proper filter usage are essential for the reduction of child mortality and diarrhea. ClaySure provides potters with illustrated materials to hand out to filter recipients, and helps facilitate the translation of documents into the local language. Health and sanitation education results in improved overall health and the prevention of disease.
Rural Potters: The simplicity of this filter technology makes it easy to construct, even with very limited resources. Since the materials needed to make the filter can be found almost anywhere, the ClaySure team travels to rural villages to teach potters to build the filter. By sharing this technology with rural potters, ClaySure broadens its impact on health improvement and disease prevention. This added dimension also offers rural potters an additional source of income.
Water Testing: ClaySure uses presence / absence HACH tests to measure the contaminant levels of various water sources. These tests are used to determine whether or not local water sources require filtration, and whether filters made at the factory are functioning properly. Using techniques of dilution, P/A HACH tests can be used to determine total coliform count, and thus the filters effective reduction of total coliforms.
Evaluation of Impact: ClaySure's goal is to establish sustainable water filter factories that produce simple, affordable and effective filters. In order to be sustainable, factories must produce quality filters at an affordable price. ClaySure encourages factory owners and large-scale filter distributors (such as NGO buyers) to conduct surveys to determine the level of recipient satisfaction. It is important to understand each community's specific purification needs, and to ensure that filters are being used regularly and properly. Ensuring this will ensure an increase in community-wide health, and consequently an increase in filter sales and the sustainability of the factory.