I returned to Canberra on Friday 26^th March for an extended stay to coincide with the birth of my sister’s son, to raise funds and to participate in development of the organisation. I was happy to see that the work in Vientianne has continued thanks to Doug Handisides and Nom Chan. Tom Schwabble has arrived in Vientianne to bring his considerable talents to our project.

In Canberra the Ripple Effect fund-raiser has been a great success and will help launch the next phase – the training of potters from 8 remote villages so they can take the technology back to their villages. While in Canberra I have been introducing our project to many new people, many of whom are becoming supporters. We have also gained extensive media coverage so check out “media” and download and share the articles.

While in Canberra I have shared the clay-pot water filter technology with indigenous potters at the Yurauna Centre, CIT Reid. Janet Fieldhouse, the resident potter has embraced the clay-pot water filter with both hands and is incorporating the technology in her curriculum. Janet and her students are assisting with resolving technical details for the extrusion of the cylindrical filter. The Yurauna Centre’s enthusiasm for the project reflects interest in the CPWF expressed by other indigenous communities elsewhere.

I have been busily following leads of interest in the business community in Canberra. There are good prospects for getting businesses on-board and a number of volunteers have offered to promote a program enabling businesses to sponsor the implementation of the CPWF in a village. Schools have also expressed an interest in the program and we hope to have a volunteer team following up these expressions of interest.

All in all, it has been a busy but satisfying time. It is exciting to spend time with a growing band of volunteers and to feed off their enthusiasm and dedication. If you have been touched by the Abundant Water project or the Ripple Effect please get in touch and tell me about it. I look forward to hearing from you.

The Canberra based Abundant Water fund-raising committee was interviewed by Canberra times reporter Megan Doherty about the work that Abundant Water is doing in Lao. This proved to be a great introduction of AW to the Canberra community.

Canberra Times article text:

Abundant Water – a project that grew from the social conscience of a Canberra engineer – is winning supporters from around the world including a French Canadian model and now possibly Yoko Ono.

Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, the reach of the group is extending far beyond the national capital.

Abundant Water is working to bring clean water to the developing world using simple, inexpensive clay filters.

It was started by Canberra engineer Sunny Forsyth, 29, who has taken research by Australian National University lecturer Tony Flynn and applied it to villages in Laos, working with local potters.

Dr Flynn’s work allowed water filters to be made from commonly available materials and fired on the ground using manure, without the need of a kiln.

Bacteria is removed from the water as it drips through the clay filters, reducing the risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. In Laos, used coffee grounds have been found to provide the clay with just the right porosity.

Dr Flynn is happy his work is being used by his former student, Mr Forsyth.

“I’m absolutely delighted that there is interest in it and it is being applied practically and investigated on the ground,” he said.

Four years ago, Mr Forsyth was an engineer with the Defence Department when he decided to spend a year with the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development program in Laos, initially working for an anti-human-trafficking organisation.

Mr Forsyth said life in Canberra was very comfortable, “but something was missing. I would often ask myself if this was all there was. I had always wanted to make a difference and now I realised this was very important,” he said from Laos. Mr Forsyth has stayed on in Laos to continue work with the water filters, with the possibility the concept may be extended to Indonesia.

Back home, his parents Stuart and Barbara and volunteers including Jennifer Wong and Julian Milthorpe are organising a fund-raiser for Abundant Water next Saturday at Corroboree Park in Ainslie.

Mrs Forsyth said Abundant Water’s high-profile supporters included French Canadian supermodel Judith Bedard. Another Abundant Water supporter was meeting Yoko Ono in New York to garner her support. Mr Milthorpe said, “It’s one of the few projects to which we can contribute some of our time and effort, as opposed to just donating money.”

So how is the project going you might ask. The bad news is that the answer is boring our recent progress has increased the size of the filter according to plan and is continuing smoothly. Currently the filter is 2.7 litres. The aim is for a final size between 5 and 8 litres.

Over the past fortnight we have initiated information gathering activities to seek more feedback from the remote villagers who will be using it.

We are trying a few different techniques to determine the best way to gather information.

We are gathering feedback from three different communities with three different liaison officers using three different approaches.

The first approach involves a foreign expatriate traveling to remote villages where he will demonstrate the filter using a video of the filter and the production process. Villagers will be solicited for their feedback.

The second approach is based in the capital, Vientiane, and it focuses on migrant seasonal workers. Most of these workers are from ethnic minorities and will return to their villages after a short work stint in the city. Many of these villages have problems with liver and lung flukes. While the workers are in Vientiane an expatriate liaison will use actual filters to gather feedback from the ethnic workers.

The third approach relies upon a local villager who is a respected member of an ethnic village. He will be shown the filter and explained how it is made and used. He will then be provided with photographs of the filter and seek out feedback from his and several other local villages.

Our intention is to use the results from this brief test to inform our decision when we are choosing our communication and local engagement approach.