11 Aug Water Filters for Sierra Leone

Gail Welch, a former nurse at Mattru Hospital, spent four weeks in Sierra Leone this summer with a team installing HydrAid BioSand water filters (www.hydraid.org) in various villages and training installers for the future. They worked closely with the United Brethren church in Sierra Leone (Bishop John Pessima, Rev. Justin Marva, and close friend Rev. Thomas Beckley) installing more than 30 filters in the Bo and Mattru area, including three filters at Mattru Hospital.

Another 30 filters remain to be installed. If they are accepted and people want to see more, the Welches would like to send more filters. This shipment of 60 filters got a free ride from the US Navy to the Port of Freetown.

The filters are simple. They have a plastic casing and tubes, are filled with different layers of sand, and grow a “biological layer” that attacks bacteria and viruses. There is no real maintenance except to keep it wet, wash the tube and tray monthly, and if running too slowly, stir the biological layer with your hand (perhaps 2 or 3 times a year). No electricity, no in-line chlorinators or iodine, no charcoal, no paper filters, no replacement parts.

Gail and Brian Welch (left) live in Fremont, Mich. Gail served as a nurse the the Mattru Hospital and Brian taught at Centennial School until 1994, when the civil war forced their evacuation.