Arsenic

In November, 2010, we installed the first ACI arsenic-reduction filters in the Camoapa region in Nicaragua.  This effort was the result of our ongoing work alongside El Porvenir in their placement of wells. The staff of El Porvenir had found that there is ground water contaminated with arsenic in some of its communities, not an unusual occurrence as the existence of arsenic is widespread as it is a natural component of volcanic rock which abounds in the country.

The filters we constructed and installed were the result of ACI’s ongoing agenda of research and development.  Our first effort comprised an inexpensive but highly effective technology to capture arsenic and cause it to become inert.  The filter is smaller than the traditional ACI biosand filter, and is to be used as a secondary filtration device after water is first cleaned by the biosand filter

We brought with us the arsenic reduction substance we used in constructing these filters, but are at work refining a less expensive substance from a compound that readily exists in many countries.  This is an urgent matter as countless numbers of families in countless countries need such filters in order to have safe water to ingest.  An independent analysis of the filters was done following their installation and found that the concentration of arsenic fell from over 50.omg./l to 00.0mg/l.