by Rachel Shisei – EM TV News, Madang
While the current drought conditions are taking a toll on people in the Madang Province, the Councilor of the Tadup Ward in the Transgogol LLG of Madang is improvising.
Peter Kunou has been using the Bio-Sand Filtering System, to assist his people, especially the teachers of the Tadup Primary School, with the aim to help them end the school year properly.
Due to drought conditions, only the Grade Eight students remained in class because of their exams.
“The water we fetch from the wells and what’s left of the rivers are poured into the bio-sand filter, and clean water comes out,” said Kunou.
He added that he has tested the bio-sand filter using 10 litres of water, collected from what’s left of the rivers, and the test has proven positive.
“The water I poured in had a lot of bacteria, but when it came out, there were only 27 left in the water which is very good quality, in terms of drinking water,” he said.
So what’s the trick? The main tool that Peter uses, is just sand in layers, from little rocks, to the thickest and the finest sand, no machines whatsoever. The councilor believes that the sand filter can give clean water, regardless of where it’s been fetched.
Tadup Primary School Teachers are very much appreciative of the councilor’s initiative and effort to keep them going.
“There are eleven of us, struggling to use only two of these bio-sand filters, which takes more than four hours to filter just 10 litres of water for us to use for drinking and cooking,” said Gilard Sigan, Tadup Primary School Head Teacher.
The councilor mentioned that he’s done several submissions for help to the government for water, but nothing has eventuated as yet.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=v_2ZgYgrnOo%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
