the filters are ready!

about a month ago I posted about the Bio Sand Water Filters that we will be destributing all throughout Mexico and about our trip to El Plomo, Mexico, which is a small mountain village. I took a picture of two glasses of water, one being prefiltered and the other being filtered. I wanted to show you what these filters were capable of as far as getting crystal clear water. well the process didn’t end there. the next task was to check the bacteria levels in the water to see if it was safe to drink. the first test I took was with prefiltered water and it came back almost deadly. the water was just nasty, it even smelled up an entire room. now each filter needs roughly 3 weeks to build up a biological layer that rests on top of the fine sand layer 

within the filter. the biological layer is one of the most important layers in the filter. without it you will not remove the bacteria from the water. one week into the process I took a sample of filtered water and put it into our bacteria test. 48 hours later it came back positive. there was still bacteria in the water but it was definately better than the prefiltered. there was no smell and the color change wasn’t as dramatic. so I needed to wait the full three weeks to allow the bio layer to build more. I took a sample 

two days ago and tested it and today the results came back…….NEGATIVE! there is no bacteria in the water and it is safe to drink. this is huge news. we were able to take water that is very dangerous to drink and naturally filter it through a process that has made the water drinkable and safe. each filter will cost roughly $12 to make. the first weekend in June we are scheduled to take our trip to El Plomo and distribute about 12 filters. this is going to be a great trip and I look forward to pursuing this part of our work more and more over the next months and years to come. check out these photos of the bacteria tests (yellow is bad water, purple is good safe water) and the bio layer in the filter.