The Water Here - Part 2: At the Factory

My first two full weeks here were spent at the Ceramics Water Filter factory, in a small village about half an hour outside of Kunming City. This post describes the water situation there, and what I've learned.

Water at the Factory

 Our tap water comes from a neighboring village higher in elevation, at the foot of Xi Shan, or West Mountain. It is operated manually, so the hours are inconsistent and vary widely. I guess when we have water depends on projected usage, time of year, amount stored at present, and how much the pump operator had to drink the previous night. To mitigate this, we have a unique water system of our own design. 

Two large storage tanks (one of which I installed last week) up on the roof are filled by gravity whenever they aren't full and the tap is delivering. From these, we get cold water throughout the building. Also from these, a smaller tank is kept full, and water from here is moved through the solar water heater, basically a panel of zig-zagging pipes. From here, we get hot water throughout the building, so on good days where we have the killer combination of plentiful water and sun, we get to take showers and wash our clothes! These are things I won’t take for granted again. My dad told me long ago: Two things you should do at every possible opportunity when traveling are 1.) Sit down, and 2.) Wash your clothes.

A fourth tank closer to ground level catches rainwater channeled from the roof, and this water fills a large cement tub where we first soak, then flow test our filters. The filters being tested sit on rack as they drain, and the rack collects the water, pipes it back to the tub, from which we can pump water back into the tank for reuse. We use a dry ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, which not only conserves water, but helps to control odor and flies. [I will touch on a similar subject later when I write about a rural village biogas project I am about to start this week] A very small fifth tank is connected to a small pump used to inject precise amounts of moisture into our clay/rice husk mixtures, which get molded into filters. We use our own filters to clean the water we drink - the ultimate test. I like that we trust our work.

As you can see, it takes a well designed system to manage and not waste water. Conserving water is important because if not properly managed, the community as a whole may suffer shortages. The factory has been good for me, since fixing, using, and modifying the system have let me put into practice my previously only theoretical knowledge.