Project DefinitionThe filter designed by Clearwater-Aid must reliably produce clean water. Clean water is that which is free of all harmful viruses, chemicals, organisms and particulate. The team has created several specifications that as goals that constitute a high quality filter. · Water must be less than 5 NTU (EPA)
· Filter must have pore sizes no larger than .2 microns (Industry Std.) · Filter has a flow rate greater than or equal to 3 Liter per hour · The filter must be intuitively understandable to the pilot population: Maasai
· Filter must be implement able into Maasai culture
· The filter must be affordable to either the people or a small scale fund raising organization Turbidity is a measurement of the amount of particulate in the water. Turbidity samples are commonly measured by passing Infrared light through the sample at a given wavelength and measuring the scatter through the sample. The concluding measurement is given in Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). Filtering out chemicals and viruses is much more difficult. Although all microorganisms are larger than .2 microns in size, most viruses are not. This means that without chemical purifiers, no filtration system is completely effective and removing viruses. Eric Morris (client and Maasai contact) desires a long term solution to this problem. In order to create design development that is robust and effective, the Maasai tribe must not only have an understanding of the filter, but ownership over the problem. For that reason, it is essential that the solution is not only sensitive to their culture and worldview, but also affordable so that a multitude of people may have one.
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