From Depths of a Library, Water Filters for the Poor

The Braddock Carnegie Library in Braddock, Pennsylvania, looks like an ancient castle. The bottom floor was once a bathhouse. Today, it houses a workshop for an arts program. But the library basement also has another use -- as a studio for making ceramic water filters for the developing world.

Placing it there was the idea of Richard Wukich, an art professor at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. One of his former students, Jeffrey Schwarz, helped remake the basement to use for pottery-making classes for the community.

Jeff Schwarz is a potter and a member of the national service program AmeriCorps. He works with volunteers to produce the water purifiers.

The original design of the ceramic filter came from a chemist in Guatemala, Fernando Mazariegos. Ron Rivera, a ceramics artist and activist in the group Potters for Peace, saw it and recognized its value.

Ron Rivera improved the design after a deadly storm, Hurricane Mitch, struck Central America in nineteen ninety-eight. He also worked with other groups to set up places to make the filters. He died last year. By that time, hundreds of thousands of the filters were in use in developing countries.

Tests have shown that the filter produces safe drinking water.

On a good day, Jeffrey Schwarz says the studio in the library can produce twenty filters. To make one, clay is mixed with a material that burns. It could be sawdust or agricultural waste like grain hulls, cocoa or coffee shells. Pine needles can also be used.

The mixture is shaped into a cone and then fired. Burning away the material added to the clay leaves tiny holes. These holes let water slowly pass through the walls of the filter.

A protective coating of colloidal silver is painted on the inside and outside of the filter to kill bacteria. Colloidal silver is made from water with microscopic particles of silver.

The water filter costs little to make. An international service project called Pure Water for All helps support the work. The Forest Hills Rotary Club in western Pennsylvania launched the project. The project Web site is purewaterforall.org.

Jeff Schwarz will end his service for AmeriCorps soon. But he plans to continue making the water filters in the depths of the library.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson, with Rosanne Skirble in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Archives of our reports are at 51voa.com. I'm Steve Ember.

位于宾夕法尼亚州布拉多克的卡耐基图书馆看上去像一座古老的城堡。它的底层曾经是浴室。今天，他是一个艺术项目的所在地。但是这座图书馆的地下室还有另外一个用途——为发展中国家制造陶瓷水过滤器的作坊。

将制造地点放在那里是宾夕法尼亚州滑石大学艺术教授Richard Wukich的想法。他以前的学生Jeffrey Schwarz帮他对地下室进行改造，作为社区陶瓷制作课程只用。

Jeff Schwarz是陶艺家，同时也是国家服务项目“美国军团”的成员。他与志愿者一起生产水净化装置。

陶瓷过滤器最初的设计来自危地马拉一个名叫Fernando Mazariegos的化学家。来自和平陶艺家团体的陶艺家和活动积极分子Ron Rivera认识到了它的价值。

1998年，致命的飓风米奇袭击了美国中部以后，Ron Rivera对这个设计进行了改进。他还与其他团体一起设立场所来制造过滤器。去年，Ron Rivera去世。截止到那时，已有几十万个过滤器在发展中国家付诸使用。

测试表明，过滤器可以生产更安全的饮用水。

有一天，Jeffrey Schwarz说图书馆的工作室可以生产20个过滤器。为了制作过滤器，必须将粘土和可以燃烧的物质相混合。可以是锯末，或者谷壳，可可或咖啡壳等农业废料。也可以用松针。

混合物被塑成圆锥体，然后放进火中烧制。燃烧掉添加到粘土中的可燃烧物质之后，会留下细微的小孔。这些小孔可以允许洁净的水缓慢流过过滤器。

在过滤器的内外壁涂了一层胶态微粒银保护膜来杀死细菌。胶态微粒银由水和银质微粒制成。

水过滤器的成本很低。国际服务项目纯净水组织对这项工作进行支持。宾夕法尼亚西部的福斯特希尔斯旋转俱乐部发起该项目。项目的网站是：purewaterforall.org。

Jeff Schwarz将很快结束在“美国军团”的服务。但是他计划继续在图书馆底层制作水过滤器。