Fairmount Minerals, a producer and supplier of high-grade filtration media and silica sands and gravels, has agreed to supply the financial support, filtration materials and technical assistance needed to place 1000 economically viable water purification systems in four countries by the end of 2008. Fairmount has aligned with the Aqua Clara Foundation, a non-profit, Christian-based group focused on developing unique, inexpensive chemical and physical systems to locally generate sustainable supplies of potable drinking water.The Aqua Clara Water Purification system is a point-of-use filter that cleans and disinfects otherwise polluted water without boiling.
As part of Aqua Clara’s Sustainable Clean Waters of Life 1000 Initiative, these point-of-use units are being placed in locations within Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru, where disadvantaged communities rely on rainfall, polluted ponds and unsanitary shallow wells for their drinking water. The program’s goal is to reduce exposure to preventable water-borne diseases like typhoid, cholera, dysentery and parasitic infections.
According to Bob McDonald, Aqua Clara Director, “In addition to providing clean water, our focus is on increasing industry in the region. We want to teach local businesspeople to make the purifiers and sell them to support their families. The purifiers are cost effective and contain no moving parts. Once people experience the difference clean water makes and value its importance, we’re confident they will buy these units to use in their homes. The result will be a win-win...a community with sustainable water and sustainable employment.”
Source: Fairmount Minerals
