Gaia Desert

Two of my students were interviewed by Matt Blashaw, the host of DIY network’s Yard Crashers. The 2 minute video featuring some of our LLU students: https://youtu.be/ibBQdBkB12g?t=37s They were funded here: http://www.mwdh2o.com/inthecommunity/education-programs/Pages/World-Water-Forum.aspx Thomas Hile was interviewed about his project that investigates microbial contamination in water purifiers.  Rose Mutiso was interviewed about her project poster that discussed using recycled urban runoff.  Click on the link above to see their project proposals. Congratulations to both Students!

1.      Go explore the crowdsourcing website   for previous washspots identified around San Bernardino. The site was built by previous ENVH 509 students for the San Bernardino area and is available here: washspot.crowdmap.com. Try to get an idea of previous entries and what these types of entries typically are. 2.      Travel   to San Bernardino or around your local community and find   two potential sites where homeless can access sanitation. You can also post sites where toilets were not used, but I suggest finding the improved sanitation sites . The sites should meet the following criteria: The site is not reported on by previous participants of washspot.crowdmap.com in the same way. You should not simply repeat an earlier entry; instead, you can validate the entry or update a change. The site can be geotagged and photographed.  Look at the previous entries for ideas of what to add. Remember that not all previous entries are

How to make the humanitarian system more accountable ow.ly/QhJPk   More of this discussion about the role of NGOs in the US Global Health Response: http://kff.org/global-health-policy/issue-brief/data-note-role-of-ngos-u-s-global-health-response/

Our Environmental Sampling class students setup the bucket sand filters to evaluate these simple low cost solutions for water filtration.  This is a model filter that can be completely built from items supplied from a big box hardware store like Home Depot or Lowe's. A previous blog details this.  http://gaiadesert.blogspot.com/2015/05/simple-sand-filter-construction.html   I've made some videos detailing the setup and construction process. Video 1 Overall setup.   Bottom has a perforated 1/2" pvc pipe with an elbow up to top bottom 2 inces has 3/4" gravel above that is 2 inches of 1/4" gravel 10" above that is 0.3mm sand Type of sand to use:  We sourced our sand and gravel from sepulveda building materials on Waterman street in San Bernardino.  The staff there are helpful in selecting the correct grain size of sand and gravel. . Videos to detail the actual experiments will come in a later vlog / blog.