In the 2016-17 academic year, seniors in art classes at New Castle Area Senior High School will help address one of the world’s major health problems: waterborne diseases.
According to the United Nations, 783 million people have no access to clean water, and almost 2.5 billion have no access to adequate sanitation. The World Economic Forum rates the water crisis as the No. 1 global societal risk.
Without clean water, people are at risk of ingesting bacteria that cause illnesses such as diarrhea, malaria, measles, cholera and hepatitis. UN research shows diarrheal diseases annually cause 2 million deaths attributed to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene.
Under the direction of New Castle Area Senior High School art teacher Raquel Flora, seniors will create pottery that filters out these harmful bacteria.
“It’s an idea that is big in ceramic arts,” says Flora, who is a member of the Potters Water Action Group, an international association that promotes and improves silver-enhanced ceramic water filters.
Earlier in 2016, Flora presented the idea to district superintendent John Sarandrea and Richard Litrenta, New Castle Senior High School principal. She had alongside her Richard Wukich, a retired Slippery Rock University art professor and PWAG’s international coordinator.
“Wukich was very convincing,” Litrenta says. “Creating ceramic filters is a way to introduce our students to the idea that we’re on a very small planet and that they can reach out to the rest of the world with a project like this.”
The project also has appeal in terms of the national STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) initiative.
“It is a totally positive aspect of STEAM,” Litrenta says. “Raquel was right on the money with her vision of how art can influence society by providing students an opportunity to improve someone else’s life.”
Flora, who holds a fine arts degree from Slippery Rock University, points out that the project combines aspects of science, chemistry and engineering.
Students will use a portable press that forms clay into a cone-shaped filter that fits into a 5-gallon plastic water receptacle.
“We’ll add sawdust to make the clay porous,” Flora says. “In the firing phase, the sawdust will burn off, creating a filter.”
A solution of colloidal silver and water is then painted onto the filter. The silver acts an anti-microbial agent that turns polluted water into safe, drinkable water.
Testing conducted by MIT, Tulane, Cambridge, Texas A&M, University of Pittsburgh, University of Colorado and University of North Carolina has proven the filters to be 98% to 99.9% effective in eliminating waterborne bacteria.
“A filter can last three to five years,” Flora says “And it only costs $21 to $25, depending upon local conditions.”
In April, PWAG hosted the International Water Filter Conference at Slippery Rock University. Presenting at the conference was Ibukunoluwa Ayoola—also known as IBK—a master potter from a village in the Osun state of Nigeria and an associate of Wukich.
IBK runs a pottery studio that sociologist and potter Ron Rivera, an early champion of ceramic water filters, set up near the village of Atamora. Rivera died of malaria while building the studio.
Flora and Wukich arranged to have IBK demonstrate his craft before an assembly at the high school.
IBK and Wukich brought with them three potter’s wheels and a slide show explaining how ceramic filters work to fight polluted water in Africa.
“You could hear a pin drop,” Flora says.
“Somebody from Africa came to speak to them about how combining art with science makes a difference in saving lives.”
Flora says she expects her classes to produce about 200 filters per semester, which will be sent to Nigeria, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
“Credit Raquel Flora in helping bring such a unique program to our school,” Litrenta says.
