Ceramic water filter success
One year later, Cyclone Nargis raged on–but in a good way. Thirst-Aid edirected one of the most successful Ceramic Water Filter (CWF) interventions in the world. Currently, Myanmar has the greatest CWF production capacity in the world, with eight private CWF producers who directly employ over 143 people. In the year following Cyclone Nargis, these suppliers worked with NGOs to produce, sell, and distribute over 90,000 CWFs, providing a population of nearly half a million with a sustainable source of safe water and hence improved health.
The Thirst-Aid staff also trained over 300 Community Health Educators on how to use Thirst-Aid's educational materials to train villagers on CWF use and good hygiene practices. Education first ensures that recipients receive comprehensive instruction that encourages sustained use of safe water technology and better health habits. Thirst-Aid’s template of changing the currency to education has granted the poor a means to purchase safe water technology, giving them a means to buy in. Thirst-Aid presented on the success of education as currency at the WHO Household Water Treatment conference in Dublin in September 2009. Thirst-Aid is proud that its pre-education and quality assurance programs are encouraging CWF recipients to sustain use. In future years, they hope to do even better.
Contributed by Thirst-Aid