stdClass Object ( [nid] => 173069 [vid] => 173327 [type] => task_discussion [status] => 1 [created] => 1228258544 [changed] => 1228258583 [comment] => 2 [promote] => 1 [sticky] => 0 [revision_timestamp] => 1228258583 [title] => Saturday's chat [body] => Guillaume, Tanja, Scott and I discussed the problem of water contamination and possible causes of cholera during rainy season. We got more info and identified possible reasons for contamination. We also discussed possible short and long term solutions for the problem. As I already explained in another posting, the water is sourced from a river from a hill, then piped to a large concrete tank and collected from there from the taps. The tank is washed every tree months. We found out that some people have toilets very close to the river on the hill, and they should be at least 100 meters away. When the rain falls, it washes the waste to the river. This might be one of the main causes of contamination. Scott believes that chlorination would be the best method to purify the water, but there is another problem with the tank - the water fills the tank and then keeps flowing through when full. Since the water constantly circulates, chlorination will never be able to be kept at an effective concentration. Also, since the water does not settle in the tank the mud will be present at the tap too. According to Scott, a long term solution would be to get some engineers to fix another pipe which by-passes the tank so that water flow is diverted and that would allow chlorination, which would be cheaper and more effective than filters. Scott believes that this work would be rather simple. Filters are another solution. (I talked about it before to Raul who has been trying get in contact with an NGO (CAWST I think) that works with filters in Africa.) There are also other NGOs that can be contacted about filters and Tanja gave some links, so Guillaume will contact them to see if they would be willing to help. http://www.psi.org/Where_We_Work/congo_kinshasa.html http://www.purwater.com/#/healthy%20water%2C%20healthy%20you The short term solution is to get training about cholera – how it has been transmitted and what to do to avoid it - cook and peel the food, wash hands, boil water, go to the toilet far away from the river etc… Guillaume will check with local medical staff to hold such training, and he would appreciate if we can get some posters and other educative material to help them hold efficient training(s). The people are aware that they need to boil the water for drinking, but some of them lack wood for cooking/boiling. So we discussed the alternative to use sun. Guillaume says that during rainy season they have 6-8 hours of sun per day and that temperature is 19-23°C. I believe that solar cookers could be used for boiling and maybe even cooking. We could start with some very simple ones (which could be made by the people there) to see how they work. I sent a link in French to Guillaume to try it and Scott is also interested to give it a try. More info on solar cookers can be found here. www.solarcookers.org I guess this one would be the cheapest and least complicated to make http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/%22Minimum%22_Solar_Box_Cooker (I read that they are really useful for some villages in Africa; you can boil the water and even cook on them. They save around 15$ monthly since people don't need to buy wood. The reason why more people don't use them is simply because they don't know about them. I also read about a workshop where people in a village in Tanzania were taught how to make them and they sell them now at 10$ each.) Also, Ken told me that the solar cookers work and that the people should make it instead of bying it. Looking forward to result of Scott’s trial :o) Well, that's what we came up with by now. I think we should discuss it further here and try to find a lasting solution. Looking forward to your comments and suggestions. Take care, Sonja [teaser] => Guillaume, Tanja, Scott and I discussed the problem of water contamination and possible causes of cholera during rainy season. We got more info and identified possible reasons for contamination. We also discussed possible short and long term solutions for the problem. As I already explained in another posting, the water is sourced from a river from a hill, then piped to a large concrete tank and collected from there from the taps. The tank is washed every tree months. [log] => [format] => 1 [uid] => 11288 [name] => vuzzello [picture] => [data] => a:7:{s:8:"og_email";s:1:"1";s:16:"privatemsg_allow";i:1;s:28:"privatemsg_setmessage_notify";i:1;s:17:"messaging_default";s:4:"mail";s:7:"contact";i:0;s:16:"nodecomment_sort";s:1:"2";s:8:"sms_user";a:1:{i:0;N;}} [path] => village/walungu/project/task/discussion/saturdays-chat [field_embedded_video] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [embed] => [value] => [provider] => [data] => Array ( ) ) ) [field_external_link] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) [1] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) [2] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) ) [comment_type] => task_discussion [og_groups] => Array ( [0] => 82914 ) [og_groups_both] => Array ( [82914] => Walungu ) [og_public] => 1 [tags] => [nodewords] => Array ( ) [trid] => 0 [language] => en [i18n_status] => 0 [taxonomy] => Array ( ) [translation] => Array ( ) [cid] => 173069 [pid] => 172147 [hostname] => 79.101.184.97 [thread] => 01.00/ [mail] => [homepage] => [comment_target_nid] => 172145 [depth] => 1 )

stdClass Object ( [nid] => 175978 [vid] => 176253 [type] => task_discussion [status] => 1 [created] => 1229071410 [changed] => 1229071411 [comment] => 2 [promote] => 1 [sticky] => 0 [revision_timestamp] => 1229071411 [title] => Re: water safety [body] => Excellent work Scott! The photos look great, thanks :o). Looking forward to your conclusions. Also, I think that we need a trial in Walungu too, to see how it would work there since the conditions are probably different from those in Sydney. Since this cooker is one of the simplest ones, it's hard for it to reach really high temperature, but the trial should show what could be done with it. Maybe it could be used to steam food in it, etc. I am sure it could be used for cooking at least during dry season, so that they don't need wood for that. I'm sure it can be of use even if they can't boil water in it. Let's see. Look forward to your report, and will also try to talk soon with Guillaume about what and how could be done there. Cheers! [teaser] => Excellent work Scott! The photos look great, thanks :o). Looking forward to your conclusions. Also, I think that we need a trial in Walungu too, to see how it would work there since the conditions are probably different from those in Sydney. Since this cooker is one of the simplest ones, it's hard for it to reach really high temperature, but the trial should show what could be done with it. Maybe it could be used to steam food in it, etc. I am sure it could be used for cooking at least during dry season, so that they don't need wood for that. [log] => [format] => 1 [uid] => 11288 [name] => vuzzello [picture] => [data] => a:7:{s:8:"og_email";s:1:"1";s:16:"privatemsg_allow";i:1;s:28:"privatemsg_setmessage_notify";i:1;s:17:"messaging_default";s:4:"mail";s:7:"contact";i:0;s:16:"nodecomment_sort";s:1:"2";s:8:"sms_user";a:1:{i:0;N;}} [path] => village/walungu/project/task/discussion/re-water-safety-1 [field_embedded_video] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [embed] => [value] => [provider] => [data] => Array ( ) ) ) [field_external_link] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) [1] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) [2] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) ) [comment_type] => task_discussion [og_groups] => Array ( [0] => 82914 ) [og_groups_both] => Array ( [82914] => Walungu ) [og_public] => 1 [tags] => [nodewords] => Array ( ) [trid] => 0 [language] => en [i18n_status] => 0 [taxonomy] => Array ( ) [translation] => Array ( ) [cid] => 175978 [pid] => 175677 [hostname] => 217.75.198.81 [thread] => 02.00/ [mail] => [homepage] => [comment_target_nid] => 172145 [depth] => 1 )

stdClass Object ( [nid] => 176160 [vid] => 176435 [type] => task_discussion [status] => 1 [created] => 1229110391 [changed] => 1229110439 [comment] => 2 [promote] => 1 [sticky] => 0 [revision_timestamp] => 1229110439 [title] => Re: water safety [body] => Great stuff Scott, Look forward to reading the results too. Raul [teaser] => Great stuff Scott, Look forward to reading the results too. Raul [log] => [format] => 1 [uid] => 3601 [name] => totocol [picture] => [data] => a:7:{s:29:"taxonomy_image_disable_images";i:0;s:16:"nodecomment_sort";s:1:"2";s:16:"privatemsg_allow";i:1;s:28:"privatemsg_setmessage_notify";i:0;s:8:"og_email";s:1:"0";s:17:"messaging_default";s:4:"mail";s:7:"contact";i:0;} [path] => village/walungu/project/task/discussion/re-water-safety-2 [field_embedded_video] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [embed] => [value] => [provider] => [data] => Array ( ) ) ) [field_external_link] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) [1] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) [2] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) ) [comment_type] => task_discussion [og_groups] => Array ( [0] => 82914 ) [og_groups_both] => Array ( [82914] => Walungu ) [og_public] => 1 [tags] => [nodewords] => Array ( ) [trid] => 0 [language] => en [i18n_status] => 0 [taxonomy] => Array ( ) [translation] => Array ( ) [cid] => 176160 [pid] => 175677 [hostname] => 115.129.3.222 [thread] => 02.01/ [mail] => [homepage] => [comment_target_nid] => 172145 [depth] => 1 )

stdClass Object ( [nid] => 177227 [vid] => 177512 [type] => task_discussion [status] => 1 [created] => 1229455436 [changed] => 1229455437 [comment] => 2 [promote] => 1 [sticky] => 0 [revision_timestamp] => 1229455437 [title] => Re: solar box cookers [body] => Ken, thanks a lot for advices. There are several organizations and people working with solar cookers in DRC, and Guillaume is going to contact one of them while in Kinshasa. It seems that the guy is holding some workshops about solar cookers too. http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Sylvain_Kimour_Kalubi Hope Guillaume will get some good info from him. Guillaume contacted PSI http://www.psi.org/Where_We_Work/congo_kinshasa.html as we agreed on the last group chat, and found out that they work in Bukavu and will probably soon offer their product called PUR in area of Walungu. PUR is chloramine that is used in homes for purifying water, and is not expensive. Not sure how many people will be able to afford it though. He is still in Kinshasa, and will be back in a week or so. When he's back he'll try to organize training together with medical staff there about contamination and cholera prevention. He would also like to print leaflets with basic info about cholera, possibly with some pictures, that would be distributed in the village. He needs our help in making such a leaflet. Anyone willing to give me a hand with this? Sonja [teaser] => Ken, thanks a lot for advices. There are several organizations and people working with solar cookers in DRC, and Guillaume is going to contact one of them while in Kinshasa. It seems that the guy is holding some workshops about solar cookers too. http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Sylvain_Kimour_Kalubi Hope Guillaume will get some good info from him. Guillaume contacted PSI http://www.psi.org/Where_We_Work/congo_kinshasa.html [log] => [format] => 1 [uid] => 11288 [name] => vuzzello [picture] => [data] => a:7:{s:8:"og_email";s:1:"1";s:16:"privatemsg_allow";i:1;s:28:"privatemsg_setmessage_notify";i:1;s:17:"messaging_default";s:4:"mail";s:7:"contact";i:0;s:16:"nodecomment_sort";s:1:"2";s:8:"sms_user";a:1:{i:0;N;}} [path] => village/walungu/project/task/discussion/re-solar-box-cookers-0 [field_embedded_video] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [embed] => [value] => [provider] => [data] => Array ( ) ) ) [field_external_link] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) [1] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) [2] => Array ( [url] => [title] => [attributes] => N; ) ) [comment_type] => task_discussion [og_groups] => Array ( [0] => 82914 ) [og_groups_both] => Array ( [82914] => Walungu ) [og_public] => 1 [tags] => [nodewords] => Array ( ) [trid] => 0 [language] => en [i18n_status] => 0 [taxonomy] => Array ( ) [translation] => Array ( ) [cid] => 177227 [pid] => 176180 [hostname] => 62.68.100.114 [thread] => 03.00/ [mail] => [homepage] => [comment_target_nid] => 172145 [depth] => 1 )