Blake L. - Building and Monitoring Water Purification Systems In Honduras

For the past three summers I have been working as a volunteer translator at a medical clinic in Atima, Honduras, a village located in the northeast coffee growing region. The clinic is operated by a group of doctors from Baltimore, MD. I have been doing this work because of my interest in and concern about the growing number of water-born illnesses that the Honduran people have been suffering from. When I learned that the doctors were going to implement a water purification program, I decided to investigate what I could do to help. Disease caused by dirty water is the leading cause of death and illness in the third world. My involvement in the Honduran program has become my senior project.


During the summer of 2008 I began by spending one week interviewing one hundred families about the water filtration systems they had been using for the past year. I had helped to build the donated systems during the previous summer and I wanted to find out if they were working. Each system consisted of two five-gallon buckets, two filters, a top and a tap. Each filter was expected to be able to filter and purify about 20,000 gallons of water in its lifetime. As part of my senior project I both tabulated the results of my surveys and I investigated the types of bacteria and parasites that existed in the un-filtered water so I was able to understand the source of the illnesses. I found out that the untreated water in these Honduran villages contained both bacteria and parasites.

In late February 2009, I returned to Atima again in order to interview additional families and to do simple on-site experiments to determine what the levels of the e-coli count were in the water. I used coli plate test kits that would provide quantitative results of bacterial levels. I found out that every home has e-coli or coli form colonies, or both, in its water system. I have also discovered that the water filtration system does effectively remove all e-coli from the water. From my qualitative research interviews I have confirmed that there has been a reduction in both the number of people taken ill and the number of times they have been sick. Overall, their heath has improved! Through my senior project I am experiencing first-hand that the filtration project is bringing great benefit to the poorest families of rural Honduras. My senior project has been a very worthwhile endeavor for me.

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