[19770] in APO-L
Honduras help
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sharon Zohar)
Sat Dec 12 01:22:45 1998
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1998 01:11:32 -0500
Reply-To: Sharon Zohar <Sharon_Zohar@COMPUSERVE.COM>
From: Sharon Zohar <Sharon_Zohar@COMPUSERVE.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Hi gang,
I work for Northeast Utilities, a utility holding company in New
England. The following appeared on our intranet, and I thought
that if any chapter is looking for ways to help the rural folks
in Honduras, who have been decimated by Hurricane Mitch, here is
the info. Note: I have no personal familiarity with the
non-profit groups running the effort, but I would hope that a
company the size of my employer would have checked things out
thoroughly. The agencies are looking for funds; if your chapter
enjoys doing fundraisers for charity, this is a most unusual
opportunity. Even if your semester is ending, I'd bet that the
group below will be involved in helping Honduras recover for
quite some time in the future.
Anyway, here's the info:
----------Begin forwarded message----------
... (stuff removed for brevity) ...
The devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch on Honduras is serious
and the needs of our Central American neighbors are more
fundamental than restoring their ravaged electric distribution
system.
Extreme flooding caused by more than five feet of rain has
isolated most of the rural villages of this Central American
country, one of the poorest nations in the world.
The thousands of people killed has to be reckoned alongside the
physical loss of homes and other buildings, roads, vast amounts
of topsoil, animals, and crops. The drinking water in many
areas of the country, once a life-sustaining resource, has
become contaminated and public health officials are predicting
epidemics of typhoid and cholera, among other illnesses, if
something is not done soon to provide the population with
safe drinking water. There already have been several cases of
hepatitis reported.
This is an appeal to you to voluntarily contribute to a vital
aspect of the relief and restoration effort of Honduras. The
Red Cross and other relief agencies, that include Oxfam America,
are on the scene fulfilling their worthy missions, as you might
expect. But this appeal is for a different sort of voluntary aid
to Honduras, related to our industry, using new technology for
water supply pumping, purification and enhancement. Your
voluntary contribution will also go toward electrifying public
health clinics using solar power. The appeal is particularly
dollar efficient because it uses an established non-profit
organization that has been working in Honduras for years as the
deliverers and installers of these systems.
Water Purification Technology
A new low-power ultra-violet water disinfection device recently
has been offered commercially by a California manufacturer. It
was developed by Dr. Ashok Gadgil of Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, and it won the top prize in Discover Magazine's 1996
Award for Technological Innovation (Environment Category) with
this work.
This technology has provided the first practical means for many
communities to have readily accessible, safe drinking water.
It is particularly useful in developing countries with rural
communities, households with individual septic systems, farmers,
ranchers, and others who lack access to centralized water
purification.
The ultra-violet device (whose commercial name is UV Waterworks)
disables the DNA of micro--organisms (bacteria and viruses)
present in local water supplies and destroys their ability to
reproduce. Water disinfected by UV Waterworks can be consumed
safely for up to 36 hours after disinfection. Weighing 15 pounds
and consuming 55 watts of electricity, the device disinfects 4
gallons of water per minute. This rate is sufficient to
provide for the cooking and drinking needs of 500 to 1500 people,
depending on specific circumstances. Each purification system
costs $1,000.
Why ENERSOL Associates, Inc.?
ENERSOL is a 501(C)3 nonprofit organization that has been working
in Honduras since 1991, and in other parts of Latin America since
the mid-1980s. Their basic work has been rural electrification,
specifically bringing distributed, renewable resources such as
solar photovoltaic power supply systems to villages far away from
the interconnected system. A typical stand-alone rural system
might be a simple 12-volt DC battery, energized by a solar panel
and a controller. They have installed more than 2500 solar
photovoltaic systems in Honduras and 8,000 elsewhere in Latin
America. Most recently, ENERSOL, a Chelmsford, Mass., company,
has been collaborating with another nonprofit organization,
Proyecto Aldea Global (PAG), to use renewable energy to meet
electrical needs for communication, lighting and clean water at
fifteen of PAG's rural clinics in Honduras.
Now ENERSOL and PAG are working to clear roads, repair water
systems and provide emergency food and medicine. ENERSOL has
sent three photovoltaic-powered water purification systems to
communities where solar projects are already being implemented so
there can be clean water available in these communities. These
are systems that can save lives during this critical time. They
will continue to provide clean water for many years when they are
redeployed in clinics and other distribution points once the
current emergency passes.
What You Can Do
If you would like to support the joint effort of ENERSOL and PAG
to bring much needed clean water to the people of Honduras, please
send whatever you can, as soon as you can, by writing a check
payable to,
ENERSOL Associates, Inc.
55 Middlesex Street, Suite 221
Chelmsford, MA 01863
Phillip Covell, the executive director of ENERSOL Associates, Inc.,
says that about 13 percent of the dollar contributions for the
disinfection, clinic electrification and water pumping projects
will be used for necessary program administration.
As a reminder to yourself, write "Honduras Water Projects Donation"
on the memo portion of your check. ENERSOL will send you a written
acknowledgment to document your donation as tax deductible for the
IRS.
For additional information, ENERSOL's website is www.enersol.org.
----------End forwarded message----------=
