Hello,

Sorry for the delay in the report of these results; things have been a
little crazy since I returned from Thailand. I ran H2S tests on the
filtration system built by the New Hampshire EWB team in May in Santisuk on
August 6. I was accompanied to the site by Jon Morse's nephew Durham and, I
believe, the village headman. The situation I observed was as follows:

The system built seemed to be functioning, but unfortunately not providing
the village with clean water. The horizontal roughing filter, seemed to
have already accumulated a layer of algae several centimeters thick, and so,
I wonder if more frequent maintenance might be necessary. In addition, the
system was not being used exactly as it was designed. Instead of going
directly from the new plastic storage container to the village after passing
through the two SSF, it was piped down to the old water storage container--
a large open-air cement-lined pit with a corrugated metal roof and a pipe at
the bottom that already connected to the taps in the village. The village
headman told me that after the busy agricultural season is over, they will
connect the pipes directly to the new storage container.

I ran five tests: one bottled water blank, one test at the spring box, one
at the pipe feeding the old storage container from the new one, one at the
tap at the headman's house (which included a tied-on cloth filter), and one
of the tap water after they had boiled it for drinking. The first, third
and fifth tests were all negative. The tests of the springbox water and the
unboiled tapwater were positive. The water in the old storage tank was too
low for me to get a sample, so I'm not able to guess whether the water is
being contaminated in the old storage conainer or the tap or somewhere in
between. I wouldn't be surprised if it were the old storage container as
there were leaves and other debris floating in it.

I think that covers the important information I collected in my follow-up
visit to Santisuk. Please e-mail me with any questions.

Best Regards,
Kate Ricke