Bryan had made a great bio sand filter that would be used to show kids in SRP how a bio sand filter works and hopefully provide some clean water. Unfortunately in the move to it’s home in SRP it was broken. Ann Marie, Christian, Bryan and I went out to fix the small problem and install some hand pumps as well on the 31st of July. Basically the pipe needed to be reattached to the base of the tank. We had a plethora of glues and binding cement and Bryan set to work. After 15 minutes the Goo he used seemed to be basically set and we poored water in. Everything worked great except a leaked developed. We added more goo and bonding cement but to no avail. We made the decision to empty it out and glue it from both sides.
After emptying ir Bryan applied copious amounts of glue, and plummer’s cement. We waited another hour to let it dry. While it dried we started sorting through the sand to pull out the gravel. The bio sand filter has a layer of rocks at the bottom and when we poured it out they all got mixed together. After a few hours we had it all back together and started adding water. It hurt when we realized that too much sand had leaked to the bottom and clogged the hole. Sadly we would have to take it all apart again.
Jenneli and I tackled the troublesome biosand filter yesterday the 5th of August. This time the children were fully committed to help finish the job and we had to watch what we did as it would be multiplied by 20 little hands. It made quick work of the task but it still took 3 hours. We took the extra precaution of rinsing all the sand with water and creating another interim layer of gravel to help keep the sand out. We looked on with satisfaction at seeing it pouring water out the spigot without any drips at the bottom. Hopefully when we come back in a few more days the bio layer will have been created and it will be doing a decent job of cleaning water so it is fit to drink. The kids will have to pour a little water in the top each day to help develop the layer. Jenneli and I wanted to get more done that day but we left satisfied with what we had accomplished.
1 comment:
Good words.
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