Good
to the last drop
A story in the Fall
2002 issue of The University Magazine helped bring a source
of clean drinking water to people in El Salvador and Bolivia.
The
story related the work of Sarah Brownell ’98 (mechanical
engineering) and Bill Larsen, RIT associate professor of civil
engineering, who developed and installed simple, inexpensive
drinking-water disinfecting systems in Haiti and Cambodia.
 |
| Sarah Brownell ’98, left, explains how to piece together
plumbing for an ultraviolet water-purification system in
Takeo Province, Cambodia. |
The projects caught
the attention of Jerry and Judy Bohl of Otsego, Mich., parents
of Julia Bohl ’00 (NTID), now an NTID employee. Since 1995,
the Bohls have been involved in volunteer work in El Salvador
through their church. During numerous visits to the Central American
country, the Bohls observed that the widespread poverty of the
area was drastically compounded by the lack of clean water. Bohl,
who had connections to the water industry through his work as
owner of a machine shop, looked into possible solutions, but commercially
available equipment proved too costly.
After reading the
article, Bohl contacted Larsen. He determined that the cost
to build a water purification unit and operate it for two years
was $737. He and his wife built one and took it to El Salvador
in early 2003. Later, after talking about their project at
a spiritual retreat, the Bohls met a Western Michigan University
professor who was originally from Colombia. He and his wife
funded a second unit. Another family learned about the project
and offered to pay for a third.
A subsequent article
in the Kalamazoo newspaper about the Bohls and their work has
generated more interest. “I’m
not trying to sell anything. but people respond. It cannot
be bad,” says Bohl.
“We are so thankful
that RIT thought the effort that Sarah and Bill put out to
develop the original unit was worthy of publication.”
Meanwhile,
Brownell continues her work. She helped launch and provides
technical expertise to the Brainstorming Technology Center – a
pilot project for technology experimentation and community
education aiming to eradicate waterborne illness associated
with unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation in Borgne,
Haiti.
Prototypes of ultraviolet
water-purification systems, a solar cooker and an environmentally
safe “dry toilet,” all
of which Brownell helped implement, are demonstrated at
the center and rural outreach education seminars. Support came
from RIT, the University of California at Berkeley (where
Brownell is a graduate student), Massachusetts Institute
of Technology’s IDEAS Competition, and Haiti Outreach-Pwoje
Espwa, or HOPE, a nonprofit, Rochester-based volunteer organization
supporting health care, health education and economic development
in Borgne.
Brownell also promoted
ultraviolet water-purification systems through the Cambodia
Clean Water Project and worked with Ali Ogut, RIT professor
of mechanical engineering, on a project to develop more energy-efficient
ultraviolet water-purification units for use in municipal wastewater
treatment plants, rural areas and homes. Last fall, Brownell
presented her work at a conference sponsored by Engineers
Without Frontiers at Cornell University and at a Caroline
Werner Gannett Lecture Series talk on citizen activism
at RIT.
“Being a citizen
activist is about being engaged in your community and being
willing to walk outside your comfort zone where you can encounter
people different from yourself,” Brownell says. “Democracy
grows when people come into contact with one another
to share ideas, when people feel empowered to make
decisions and effect change on any level, when people seek
alternative sources of information, when people ask questions,
when people tell their stories and when people take direct
action.”
Kathy Lindsley and Michael Saffran
