Clean water from the sun
Solar disinfection of water is beautifully simple. All you need is tropical sunshine, a plastic bottle full of water and some patience. The GATE / Small-Scale Project Fund is pioneering solar water disinfection in Sri Lanka. Transparent plastic bottles are filled with water and placed in the sun for six hours. Laying the bottles on the kind of corrugated tin or iron used for roofs works particularly well. That is enough time to disinfect contaminated water through heat in order to make it safe for drinking. This technique is particularly effective for removing pathogens that cause diarrhoea. If the temperature is below 42oC or it is cloudy, two days does the trick. If the water is too cloudy to see the label on the far side of a clear bottle, it needs to be filtered first. The pilot project has already cut water-related disease rates in nursery schools.
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
