Two P3 Filters in Costa Rica serving 40 families
BioSand Bag Filter at the Expo de Agua
In the mountains of Costa Rica the P3 BioSand Bag Filter brings pure water to the village of La Cima Below.
Costa Rica
In October, the management team of BioSand Bag Filters was invited to meet with the First Lady of Costa Rica, Mercedes Penas Domingo. The invitation was extended by our new partners in Costa Rica, Agua Global Costa Rica. We met On October 14, 2014 in the First Lady’s office to discuss the opportunity of providing our flagship product, the P3, to improve the quality of water across Costa Rica. We were well received by the First Lady and we were introduced to the Minister of Water as we left. Later that day, we signed a mutual exclusivity agreement with Agua Global Costa Rica to provide the P3 to them in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Peru. At the end of this whirlwind trip through Costa Rica, we met with the Minister of Health and a representative of their EPA. We discussed the issues they were facing and agreed to stage a test of the P3 to evaluate its effectiveness in the field.
Subsequent to this meeting, we were invited to return to Costa Rica to have a next steps meeting with the Ministers of Health and Water. The meeting was a success as they agreed to test out our P3 in 2 different regions of the country. The Minister of Health arranged for us to have television and newspaper coverage of our working P3 on December 12, 2014! We are in the process of having 2 P3’s manufactured and we will be down in Costa Rica during the week of December 8 to set up the P3 and exhibit its effectiveness in addressing the water issues of this country!
We are currently working out the arrangements to test our P3 at separate sites for the Ministry of Health and Water. We are reviewing new sites to install the P3 where the outflow will be closer to the community. More news soon to follow.
Feria Earth Multicultura (Multicultural Festival at Earth University)
With our partners in Costa Rica, Vida Liquida, Roy Morrison of the BioSand Bag Team presented to a group of 40 ASADA Leaders at Feria EARTH Multicultura in Costa Rica’s Earth University. The presentation was enthusiastically received and many questions were asked and answered during the Question and Answer session. BioSand Bag and Vida Liquida had a booth where the full-sized P3 was on display. Many of the over 20,000 visitors to the festival stopped by the booth and many expressed interest in how the P3, or PEPE 3, as it is now affectionately known now could be used by farmers, local communities as well as builders of electric power plants! This was an exciting adventure for us and will hopefully lead to much work for us in Costa Rica!
The P3 frame getting ready to be transported
The P3, (PEPE 3) on display
The introduction of PEPE 3!
Greeting sign at Earth University
Some of the give aways at the Booth
Roy presenting to the group of ASADAS
Entrance to the EARTH University
Mary, Vida Liquida, and Stephan our translator
The ASADAS gathering after the presentation
Site Inspection
While down in Costa Rica to attend and present at Feria EARTH Multicultura, Roy Morrison of the BioSand Bag Team along with Natalie Toros of Vida Liquida went to see one of the potential sites for our P3 to be used. Working with ASADAS Higuito, we went into the hills of Costa Rica to see their current water collection systems. Over bumpy hill and dale, we arrived at the initial site. We left our trucks behind to hike the rest of the way up to their primary collection site. The terrain was very rough and constituted walking over by single file a concrete walkway over the river. While very beautiful, this location presents many challenges for our filter. The speed of the water flow at dry season was over 9 liters per second and increased to over 20 liters per second during their rainy season! This flow greatly exceeds our current expectations and after much thought, we needed to rethink the location to somewhere closer to the end users where we could manage a more reasonable flow into the P3s.
It was a very exciting visit as this was our initial venture into the realities of local challenges in Costa Rica. While we are not ready to replace local municipal water facilities, we all agreed that there is a prominent place for the P3 in Costa Rica’s plans.
Local ASADAS headquarters
Pipes leading from the river to the water collection site
Roy inspecting the grounds
The major filtration site
Roy and Nathalie with the Hiquito’s community in the background
Water Collection site
Area where P3s would be installed
The ASADA’s water treatment team with Nathalie
View of the community
Terrain around the site
More of the piping leading from the collection site to the village
Agua Expo 2015
For 2 days in April, BioSand Bag Filters showcased the P3 and the newest version, the Table Top P3 at Costa Rica’s Agua Expo 2015 in San Jose. We had both our full-size P3 and the Table Top on display in our booth. We had many visitors and came away from the Expo with agreements from the Ministry of Health to test our P3 in the National Laboratory of Costa Rica! Here are some of the pictures from the exhibition. We also are making arrangements for the initial field testing of the P3 in a rural town. More details to follow shortly.
