Abundant Water

Sabaidi!

In one of our very first attempts to see if this clay-pot filter could be made from locally sourced materials, we decided to see how successful we could be in producing one ourselves. We got our hands on some clay and coffee grounds, mixed them together and shaped a very crude-looking filter.

We had seen that a potential firing technique was to use dried buffalo dung, as it burns at the right temperature. So off we went to a nearby field trying to avoid being noticed by locals as we collected some suitable pieces of buffalo dung.

Back at home, we built a little fire out of the dung with our filter nestled inside. About an hour later we had very red eyes and had inhaled copious amounts of buffalo dung-flavoured smoke. We persevered and eventually got a fire going that was hot enough to fire the filter. Our filter didn’t work so well in filtering water (we were no potting experts!), however it did show that with a bit of enthusiasm and expert guidance, there was potential for this idea to work in local conditions!