Filters for Familes and Arsenic mitigation

On December 12th we arrived in a small town called Parasi, west of Chitwan National Park and Just north of the border with India. Getting there required some work, and we found ourselves quickly lost in a maze of unmarked streets and non-english speakers. Throughout our trip 90% of people have spoken fairly fluent English, but here, off the tourist circuit, there is no need for it. Luckily, we ran into a group of students who turned out to be a handful of the high-schoolers that we were coming to teach! They lead us to Filters for Families and we got settled in.

Over the course of the next week we taught crafts to kids ages 5-10 each morning, and in the afternoon the high-schoolers arrived and Eric and I taught science while Ian taught photography. Science lessons included plate tectonics, watersheds, soil and sediment erosion, GPS and map reading, and Arsenic removal. The kids spoke English very well, so very little of our talks needed to be translated to Nepali. They were so enthusiastic and excited to learn!! They also were very excited to get to know us. The girls were teaching me Nepali and wanted to know all about things back home. A couple of the girls even brought me flowers and henna on the last day of classes and decorated my hand! Talking with some of the kids, the education system in Nepal is severely lacking good teachers and funding. Most teachers only enter the profession for the money, and don't make education interactive or hands on at all. It was so rewarding to get to know the kids and I was sad to say goodbye.

In our free time from teaching we were able to tag along with Linda Smith, the director and founder of Filters for Families to go see the Arsenic removal techniques, educational methods, and difficulties she faces in working alongside an apathetic government.

Arsenic poisoning (Arsenicosis) in Nepal is a huge problem and although most Nepalis are aware of it, they can't afford to do anything about it. The specific geology of a region called the Terai has supplied the soil and groundwater with a huge supply of Arsenic. Sometimes digging a deep well (over 150meters) can provide drinking water, but these are very expensive and don't always solve the problem. The healthy standard for Arsenic consumption is only 10 ppb (parts per billion) maximum in a day. The water that many of these people are drinking is upwards of 600 ppb. In addition, when they cook their food with Arsenic contaminated water it concentrates the toxin as well as in their local alcohol. So, along with getting a dose from their drinking water, they also are consuming Arsenic in their food and other drink. A particular individual can be intaking over 3000% the recommended maximum daily dose of Arsenic per day!!!! The poorer the nutrition of the individual, the more their body clings to whater it can get, including Arsenic.

Arsenicosis results in skin splotches, painful skin lesions, wart-like growths on the palms of the hands and bottoms of the feet, and finally cancer if exposure continues. 5 out of 40 pregnancies will result in neo-natal death if the mother is exposed to high levels of Arsenic. One town, Manari that we visited had just had two brothers die of cancer within 5 months of one another, each only in their mid-thirties. They were given a filter awhile back, but their symptoms had already progressed too far for the change to help. Unfortunately this is a common story among small villages in the region. Filters for Families is an organization which educates and distributes filters to families throughout Nepal. They use the SONO-filter which is highly effective, easy to maintain, and lasts up to 12 years. With each filter installation they also educate and teach the family how to care for the filter and keep it maintained. The filters are assembled in Parasi, and one filter generally covers one to two entire families. It works using a series of layers (screens, carbon, brick fragments, sand, etc) which filter out the Arsenic along with 23 other toxic heavy metals. Each filter costs $70 dollars total.

Seeing the conditions people were living in and how sick they were really made me feel inspired to help. They barely have money for food, so the prospects of purchasing a $70 filter for themselves is grim. If anyone is able and interested in helping out, please consider donating... the website is http://filtersforfamilies.org/. It's a great organization, and what they are doing down here is really amazing. I hope to volunteer with them again in the future.



Although our time with Filters for Families was short, it really felt like a home and we were all sad to leave!! A really rewarding experience.