Monitoring

Although monitoring is one of the most important aspects of the filter project it has been our tendency to overlook monitoring in favor of installing more filters. However, this month we were able to do monitoring in five different communities under the Carroll Creek Matching Grant including La Espanola, San Isidro, Tacaulapa, Ceibita Sur and Buena Vista. We had the help of four students from La Independencia, a local technical institute, helping us as part of their practicum so things went a lot faster.

We found mixed results among the communities. San Isidro, for example, is a neighborhood about five minutes away from downtown Santa Barbara, however it is right near the garbage dump and the people are very poor and live without electricity. Out of 15 houses that have filters only 7 are functioning. Among the 8 that are not working, 2 no longer want the filters and 6 want us to reinstall the filters. Similarly, only about 60% of the filters are functioning in Ceibita Sur, so we need to reinstall the rest. Tacaulapa, on the other hand, is doing quite well with the majority of the filters functioning as they should. Although it is disappointing to find filters in disuse it shows us how important monitoring is to make sure there are no problems and to correct them as quickly as possible. Or in the unfortunate circumstance that a family no longer wants their filter it is better to remove it so another family can benefit from its use.