Our Water Projects
Sawyer PointONE Water Filter
A point of use water filtration system is created in mere minutes by affixing the 0.1 micron filter to a locally found plastic container. The bucket can be filled with water from a lake, stream, borehole, contaminated well and gravity does the rest. This fast flowing system produces more than enough clean, safe water for a family’s daily drinking, cooking and cleaning needs. When it clogs or slows down the filter can simply be backwashed with the included syringe.
Removes ALL harmful bacteria and protozoa.
Filtration Rate: Up to 360 gallons per day using gravity. Increase the output with additional filters or increased head pressure.
Life expectancy: 1 million gallons, or roughly 10 years for a family.
Cost: $35-$75
SPRING FED AQUEDUCT
In mountainous communities, often the closest source of water is a natural spring, likely higher in elevation than the community. Here, we build a spring box to protect the eye of the spring, and the water can be piped down the mountain to storage tanks in the community. It can happen that the water from the spring is clean if protected well enough or if the eye of the spring is far from any homes. If not, we work with local governments to set up chlorination systems to treat the spring water. Often it's also nice and cold!
hand pump repair
Often communities have a source of water but the system is broken in some way. In Haiti, our partners conduct a lot of hand pump repair to fix these broken systems and provide water again!
Cost: $400-$800
lifestraw community filter
A high-volume, point-of-use community water purifier with built-in safe storage, which provides microbiologically safe drinking water for schools, health facilities, workplaces and community settings. Utilizes hollow fiber filtration technology that is designed for durability and hard-to-reach communities.
Removes ALL harmful bacteria, viruses, and protozoan parasites.
Total capacity of 50 liters
Filtration rate: 12 L/hour
Life expectancy: 70,000 - 100,000 liters of water
Cost: $900
drilled wells
For a community with a deep water table or no surface water, wells are drilled anywhere between 50 to 300 feet deep to reach clean water. The water can be pumped up to the surface with a hand pump, basic electric powered pump, or solar powered pump.
Cost: $2,500 - $15,000
Windmill aqueducts
These projects have been, thus far, exclusive to northern Panama. The windmill sits on top of a shallow, hand dug well and powers the water up into the blue storage tank where along the way the water is filtered. Then chlorine is added to the water tank by the local water committee. From there, water flows via gravity to a number of tap stands close to homes in the community.
Cost: $7,500
hand dug wells
For areas with high water tables, a hand dug well can provide an abundance of fresh water for a community. Often these are less than 50 feet deep. Usually this is accompanied by a solar powered pump, water tower, and gravity fed distribution system to homes.
Cost: $30,000 - $40,000
