Some people say “what we don’t know … won’t hurt us” but when it comes to water quality, especially while living in a foreign country, that statement is definitely not true!  Recently one of our team members named Felipe and I, decided to do some training together.  I had purchased some water test kits to help us determine the water quality in some of the villages that we are working in and to also determine the output water quality of the Biosand water filters that we will be fabricating, installing and then teaching others to do the same.For these tests, we used a product called ECA Check Easygel produced by Micrology Labs, which is a clear medium containing enzymes designed to react with each of the four bacterial groups that this particular product can test.  The photo below shows a water test specimen that was collected from the cistern at our home, and as you can see it contains some pretty ugly stuff. This particular specimen was incubated at the desired 95° F. for a minimum of 24 hours.  The specimen not only shows E. coli, but also salmonella as well … Hmmm … yum, yum! That’s a good way to take off some extra weight!The photo below is a specimen from the same water source and was also incubated under the same conditions, but the specimen below was treated with some of our homemade chlorine that we produced using a saltwater brine that was molecularly separated through an electrical charge. The photo below is in fact so clear that you can see the reflection of the camera taking the photo. Both photos were taken without using the flash so that the base testing medium from the Easygel product shows up as a light brown and solidifies within one hour of mixing with the water to be tested.The treated specimen clearly shows that not only is it clear of E. coli and salmonella, but that it’s also clear of other smaller coliforms as well which will be shown better in the two lower photographs. The photo directly below shows the contaminated water specimen again, but this time the photograph was shot with the flash on. This method reveals just about all of the E. coli, salmonella and other coliforms, but with little or none of the base Easygel medium showing up.The photo directly below is of the chlorine treated specimen under the same conditions of using the camera flash. It clearly shows that just 5 to 6 drops of our homemade chlorine solution in one liter of water makes a big difference. The photo below shows a complete “white-out” signifying that there is no residual E. coli, salmonella or other coliforms within the bacterial capability of this test kit that are present.So this tells us that we would be a lot better off drinking the water that was treated with a few drops of chlorine than that other ugly stuff!  So stay tuned for other interesting and practical articles, that you’ll want to share with others!