The Rocket

Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Richard Wukich Two boys keep entertained in Haiti by playing dominos. One boy has to put a clothes pin on his face after he lost.

Media Credit: Richard Wukich A vehicle lies crushed in a street in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

SRU art professor Dr. Richard Wukich was able to use his 50 years of experience in ceramics to provide clean drinking water to the Haitians devastated by the earthquakes.

Wukich left about two weeks ago for an 8-day visit to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

While there, he promoted the production of ceramic water filters to remove deadly bacteria from the water.

The filters are made from ceramic mud embedded with colloidal silver, which kills harmful bacterial as the water is filtered through.

"The filters make two liters per hour and will last for five years," he said. "You can use water from any source-a lake, a puddle-and the water that comes out is 99.9 percent pure," he said.

Wukich said that the filters have been tested all over the world.

"In Iraq, we made water filters, got water from the Euphrates River-which is filthy and polluted-and it came out 99.9 percent pure," he said.

"We've done this all over the world. I have total confidence."

Wukich said that 5,000 children die every day from water-borne diseases.

"At first I thought, 'We're making filters one by one. How are we going to make a dent?'" he said.

"It's insignificant statistically, except if it's your baby."

Wukich said that his friend Lisa Valentine owns a filter factory in the Dominican Republic and called for help when the earthquake occurred, because she needed to increase production.

Valentine had set up the factory about four years ago and had sent some filters to Haiti in the past, according to Wukich.

Haiti briefly had its own filter factory, which was sponsored by Potters for Peace, but it failed, he said.

"It only concentrated on making the filter-there was no promotion, advertising or business plan," he said.

"That's what we're working on at SRU."

Wukich said that as soon as he heard from Valentine, he bought his plane ticket and made arrangements to go with his daughter, Danika, an SRU alumna.

"We flew into Santiago and were at the factory the next morning," he said.

According to Wukich, the weekend was a Dominican holiday, but the factory was full of people working, and everyday more people arrived to help.

He said that it would take nine hours to send a truckload of supplies into Haiti because of the mountain range separating it from the Dominican Republic, but it didn't take long to send supplies by airplane.

Wukich said that a new filter factory will start in Haiti "as soon as it's feasible that we won't interfere with the rescue and immediate needs."

Out of his eight days spent in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, three were spent in Haiti.

"We heard rumors that the roads were closed and there were bandits, but we took a chance, went to the border and slept on the ground overnight," Wukich said.

He said that the roads ended up being a little tough, but it didn't take as long as expected to get to Port-au-Prince.

While at Port-au-Prince, Wukich was featured on CNN Heroes: Saving Haiti with Anderson Cooper.

The special was aired at 10 p.m., Jan. 29, and was rebroadcasted throughout the weekend.

Wukich said that Doc Hendley, founder of Wine to Water, was selected as one of the CNN heroes and after Doc's segment, Wukich was asked to explain the filters, taking advantage of the TV coverage to promote them.

"We knew there would be TV coverage, but it worked out much better than expected," he said.

Wukich said they went to a hospital where the filters were being used and that he picked up a Haitian baby there and gave her a drink of the filtered water.

"This baby isn't going to get sick drinking our water," he said.

Another of Wukich's nights was spent sleeping on the Port-au-Prince airport grounds with other rescue crews from around the world.

The next morning, he headed to Jacmel, which he said had been hit hard by the earthquake.

"The roads had been closed, but we managed to get through," he said.

While in Jacmel, Wukich said that they taught a native Creole speaker to use the filter so that they could teach the other Haitian people.

"The filters have directions in Spanish," he said. "We tried to get labels printed in Creole, but we were unable to."

According to Wukich, the ceramic water filters were discovered by Ron Rivera, coordinator of the Potters for Peace Ceramic Water Filter program, in Guatemala in the late 90s.

Rivera set up a water filter factory in Africa last year, contracted a deadly form of malaria and died, Wukich said.

"He went around and just really inspired people," he said.

Wukich also credited Manny Hernandez, a professor at Northern Illinois University, for the filters.

"He invents machinery that we use constantly," he said.

"He can make something out of nothing."

Hernandez got SRU started on working on the filters, Wukich said.

Two machines were constructed at SRU to produce the filters with support from provost and vice president of academic affairs, Dr. William Williams; funding from SRU's Student Government Association and the Forest Hills Rotary Club and a student/faculty research grant.

Wukich said there's also a filter manufacturing demonstration site at the Braddock Library in Braddock, Pa.

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