Water Technology

If You Give a Person a Solar Water Pump…

HydrateLife WASH, Water Technology 6 Comments

For the past few years solar water pumps have been gaining momentum as the answer for rural villagers’ pumping needs.  If you’re a regular reader of articles at HydrateLife you’ll know that I am a huge fan of technologies that are sustainable, simple, and appropriate for the location and users.  As solar is seemingly at the opposite spectrum of these simple technologies, I was interested in looking at their feasibility in rural areas of developing countries.  Would someone be bettercontinue reading

How Do You Wash Your Hands? A Look at Simple Hand Washing Stations

HydrateLife Health, Sanitation, WASH, Water Technology No Comments

As we all know, washing our hands is very important.  This is especially true when you’re working with food, have just used the toilet, or are caring for children.  Washing our hands removes bacteria and pathogens and is a key part of keeping ourselves and our loved ones healthy, especially our children.  People all over the world wash their hands, but depending on where you are in the world the experience may be very different.  I’m fortunate to live somewherecontinue reading

A Few Good Reads

HydrateLife Environment, Facts/Statistics, Health, Sanitation, Sustainable Practices, WASH, Water Technology, Water Treatment No Comments

Hey everyone, I’m having a busy week and don’t have time to write anything, but I wanted to get something posted so here are a few of my favorite WASH related books. Book titles occasionally include the term field guide in a euphemistic sense, and such works very rarely are actually used in the trenches. With Field Guide to Environmental Engineering for Development Workers, however, a more literal take is in order. Indeed, on the inside front cover the readercontinue reading

The Qanat: An Ancient Technology Still Delivering Water Today

HydrateLife Sustainable Practices, WASH, Water Technology 13 Comments

I was doing some light reading on hydrogeology the other day and came upon something that interested me, and hopefully will be of some interest and/or use to you.  I’m always fascinated by history and the way ancient civilizations came up with ingenious ways to survive in harsh conditions, and what I found in my book was exactly that. The technology I’m talking about is called a qanat.  Well, that’s what it was called in what is present-day Iran, whichcontinue reading

Water Heroes – Dr. Peter Morgan: 2013 Stockholm Water Prize Winner

HydrateLife Environment, Health, Sanitation, Sustainable Practices, WASH, Water Heroes, Water Technology 4 Comments
Water Heroes – Dr. Peter Morgan: 2013 Stockholm Water Prize Winner

There are a lot of good people in the world that are making great efforts to bring clean water and improved sanitation facilities to those who need it throughout the world, and their efforts are paying off.  Between 1990 and 2010 two billion people gained access to clean water and 1.8 billion people gained access to improved sanitation facilities according to the World Health Organization.  Even with these encouraging figures, there are still a lot of people in the worldcontinue reading

The Best Way to Pump it Up – Part 3

HydrateLife WASH, Water Technology 8 Comments

Today I will be concluding my series on water pumps with the India Mark pump and the EMAS Flexi-Pump. One of these pumps, the India Mark, has been widely used in developing countries for decades and continues to be improved on (there is the Mark II and Mark III).  The EMAS Flexi-Pump has a simpler design and is easy to make on your own.  Let’s get started. The India Mark Pump The India Mark II was designed during the 1970’scontinue reading

The Best Way to Pump it Up – Part 2

HydrateLife WASH, Water Technology 5 Comments

Thanks to everyone who read and/or commented on part 1.  Your feedback is always appreciated.  If you missed part 1 you can find it here. Today I will again talk about two different pumps, one that is fairly simple, and another which is a little more complicated, but still fairly simple.  So without further adieu… The Treadle Pump The treadle pump is a simple suction pump that has been around since the 1970’s.  It was first introduced to farmers incontinue reading

The Best Way to Pump It Up – Part 1

HydrateLife WASH, Water Technology 8 Comments

If you’re looking to pump water in a rural setting there are a lot of options that can be used, however, not all pumps are created equal.  Some are more expensive than others and may require outside funding, and others can be built from locally available parts that are fairly inexpensive.  Some have a lot of working parts which make maintaining them a challenge, while others are very simple and easy to maintain.  Further, some are designed to give enoughcontinue reading

Stealing Water from the Sky: Fog Catching

HydrateLife Health, Sustainable Practices, WASH, Water Technology 12 Comments
Stealing Water from the Sky: Fog Catching

Growing up near San Francisco, California (and now living there) I have always had to deal with the inevitable fog that rolls in from the ocean seemingly every day.  Everyone is always complaining about the fog ruining their day and the depression of weeks on weeks of endless fog.  Needless to say, I have never been very fond of the stuff.   Because the people living in the San Francisco area are very fortunate and don’t have to worry about watercontinue reading

3 Products for Clean Water

HydrateLife Health, Water Products, Water Technology 9 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve written about water related products, so today I’m going to take a quick look at three simple products that provide clean water.  These products are not appropriate for all situations, but they’re all intended for developing countries.  Let’s take a look and see whether they’re actually a good fit to provide lasting solutions. Hydraid BioSand Water Filter As the name would imply this is a water filter that uses sand to filter out thecontinue reading

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