Rama Cay Health Center Receives Solar-Powered Water Filtration System

By Casey Callais -- The drinking water in the tiny island of Rama Cay is dirty. Very dirty. And not in the sense that it can be cleaned by simply scooping out pollutants with a sieve. Much of what contaminates open well drinking water can not be seen by the naked eye; fecal coliforms cannot be scooped out. Neither can protozoa or the many other contaminates, which populate the 5 wells that the 1,000 residents of Rama Cay use for washing, bathing and drinking. Diarrhea is a serious problem (you can hear Maria, the nurse in Rama Cay explain why here) and the population most vulnerable to such contamination rely heavily on the well at the Rama Cay health clinic.

To tackle this problem, blueEnergy engineers devised a clever solution that weds the organization's experience with solar power and biosand water filtration to create, you guessed it, a solar-powered biosand water filter!

With funding from Renewable World, blueEnergy designed and installed a system that pumps water from the clinic's well to a holding tank that then drips into a biosand filter and from there into a holding tank. The system is controlled by a series of float valves that allow water to pass until the tank is full.

Here is an example of the system:

 

1. The solar panel on the roof of the health clinic powers the electric pump in the well.

2. The submersible pump is controlled by a float switch in the top tank. When the float is down and the sun is out, the pump sends well water into the top tank until the float comes up and cuts the pump off. 

3. There is enough well water in the top tank for several days of the clinic's water requirements. Gravity draws water from the top tank to the filter.

4. Water drips into into the biosand filter at a slow rate giving the good bacteria a consistent supply of bad bacteria to munch on. The water filters down through the barrel of sand and into the clean water storage tank.

5. Clean water is stored in the lower tank which is still high enough to supply water pressure to the clinic.

6. Patients in the health clinic can drink clean water and the staff can work in more sanitary conditions.

No longer is there worry at the health clinic over contaminated water and the sickness that it brings. This installation provides the solution and represents the strong bond between the indigenous community of Rama Cay, blueEnergy and Renewable World.

University of Michigan's Mtrek Group Works Firsthand with blueEnergy

By Casey Callais -- A University of Michigan M-Trek trip recently visited blueEnergy for four days to get a taste of what working with blueEnergy is like. M-Trek is a program that brings small groups of MBA students together to bond before they begin their classes.

The trip was organized in part by Lizzie Reisman, former blueEnergy Development Director and current Ross MBA student.  Lizzie convinced a handful of fellow adventurous students to visit Bluefields, Nicaragua for their bonding trip experience.

The M-Trek group spent their time building water filters, conducted interviews with local families to determine energy access needs and distributed solar-powered lamps to the families for testing. One of the locations for lamp distribution was Rama Cay. According to Eric Lopp, blueEnergy Program Coordinator and organizer of the Rama Cay visit:

"After the wet 35-minute trip by dory (a small boat carved out of a log) blueEnergy and the M-Trek group received a gracious welcome at the Moravian Church where over 100 natives dressed in their customary white greeted us. A leader from Rama Cay gave us a short tour of the island explaining their customs and showed us a number of the solar energy installed by blueEnergy."

Click on the video below to see what the group had to say about their time with blueEnergy.

 blueEnergy extends a special thanks to Lizzie for her work in putting together such a great trip!

WE CARE Solar Suitcase Shining Brightly in Rural Health Clinic

By Casey Callais -- The health clinic in Rama Cay is in a dire state with a rusted leaky roof, gates that don't close and access to only eight hours of electricity each day provided by a diesel generator. According to the nurse in charge of the three-room clinic, Maria McCrea the clinic receives no help from MINSA (Nicaraguan Ministry of Health) and patients are required to bring their own candles if they have to stay overnight. blueEnergy teamed up with WE CARE Solar to help alleviate a large problem at the clinic, the problem with light. 

WE CARE Solar designs portable, cost effective solar suitcases that power critical lighting, mobile communication devices, and medical devices in low resource areas without reliable electricity. By equipping off-grid medical clinics with solar power for medical and surgical lighting, WE CARE solar facilitates timely and appropriate emergency care, which greatly reduces maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. 

The Solar Suitcase is a complete 12-volt lighting package with battery, charge controller, waterproof LED lights and cellphone charging adapters that are neatly set in a portable plastic box. Usage habits are monitored monthly and the information will be sent to WE CARE Solar to help improve future versions of the Solar Suitcase.

blueEnergy supplied the solar panel and connected the device in the health clinic with the help of two French interns, Antoine and Claire. The install was led by blueEnergy staff member, Chris Sparadeo and members of the community pitched in to help make sure the install went smoothly.

There is much work still to be done in the clinic in Rama Cay, but now that they have the Solar Suitcase, they will not be working in the dark.

Solar installation lights up the school in Rama Cay

By Chris Sparadeo -- More than any other populace in Nicaragua, the indigenous peoples of the Atlantic Coast suffer from low levels of education and pedagogy. The need to provide indigenous youth with a local, quality education is evident and for the past three years the Belgian-based Jan Amos Comenius Foundation (FJAC) has been supporting related initiatives in the region. FJAC has been working in the public schools of Nueva Guinea to raise local capacity and educational standards with regards to the environment. Recently a sistership has been forged between the communities of Nueva Guinea and Rama Cay in aspirations of creating a cross-cultural exchange to raise levels of pedagogy while simultaneously ameliorating prejudice and hostility between Mestizo and indigenous youth in the region. With an emphasis on environmental consciousness, the unification employs methodologies derived from María Montessori and Jan Amos Comenius. The project incorporates 20 educators from both communities and is anticipated to benefit over 400 students.

Rama Cay is located 15 km to the southeast in the Bluefields bay and is accessed by small, motorized watercraft and canoe. The island has historically been populated by families of the Rama ethnicity and apart from the handful of Creole residents, this holds true today. As an anthropologic aside, the two islands (now fused together by oyster shells and organic matter) were awarded to the Rama by the Miskito in recognition for their assistance in fighting a rival indigenous tribe in the 17th century.

Although currently detached from the national electrical grid, the island community uses a diesel plant that provides electricity to a majority of the households. Unfortunately, the local school is not connected to this grid, and deprived of light and the use sophisticated teaching aids, the ability to provide quality education proves difficult.

To overcome this difficulty in educational and infrastructural gaps between the two sister schools, FJAC constructed a media lab adjoining the school in Rama Cay and subcontracted blueEnergy to size and install a solar photovoltaic system to meet the lab's energy demands. Using distributed generation software, blueEnergy technicians were able to design a cost effective array that covers 99.5% of the equipment’s electrical demand. The two 325-Ah Trojan batteries used to store the system's energy were donated by blueEnergy's friends at Trojan Battery Company. The 540-watt solar system mounted to the schools roof supplies energy to the four electrical outlets and seven high-efficiency lights installed in the media lab, library and classroom of the school. Thanks to efforts from FJAC, the Rama Cay media lab has been fully equipped with a Mini Mac computer, two digital cameras, wireless Internet, printer and projector.

One panel installed, the other awaiting installation

Tying in the control panel in Rama Cay

Now fully armed with valuable educational tools, the school of Rama Cay is ready to partake in the cross-cultural exchange of educators and kick its level of education up a notch (or three!). blueEnergy is thankful for the opportunity to lend its technical support for a noble cause and gives its praises to Gerd and Elba from FJAC.

blueEnergy and Rama Cay teachers and students in front of a job well done!