miriam on mon 15 sep 08
Ron Rivera liked to call his ceramic water filters "weapons of =
biological mass destruction." For 25 years he traveled to poor villages =
throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia teaching local potters to make =
what appears to be a big terra-cotta flower pot but is in fact an =
ingenious device for purifying water.
Skip to next paragraph=20
=20
Ron Rivera, who taught how to make life-saving filters, in 2005.=20
"You put dirty water in - gray water that many communities still drink - =
and it comes out crystal clear," he told an audience last year at the =
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in Manhattan, where his filters =
were included in an exhibition called "Design for the Other 90 Percent." =
A recent study in Cambodia found that the filters cut in half the =
incidence of diarrhea, a leading cause of death in the third world, =
especially among children.=20
Mr. Rivera died on Sept. 3 in Managua, Nicaragua, after contracting =
falciparum malaria, the most dangerous form, while setting up a =
water-filter factory in Nigeria, said Kathy McBride, his wife. He was =
60.
Mr. Rivera, a Bronx-born Peace Corps volunteer who spent much of his =
life as a development worker in Central and South America, discovered =
his life's mission in Ecuador in the early 1980s. A Guatemalan chemist, =
Fernando Mazariegos, was showing local potters a ceramic pot he had =
invented. It was made of clay mixed with sawdust or ground rice husks =
that burned off during firing, leaving pores so tiny that they blocked =
the passage of water-borne bacteria while letting the water seep =
through.=20
After being coated with a bacteria-killing silver solution, the pot =
effectively eliminated 98 to 100 percent of diarrhea-causing =
contaminants like E. coli, cryptosporidium and giardia.
The pot was easy to make and cheap to buy. Suspended inside a =
five-gallon container to collect the water, it could purify one to three =
quarts an hour, drawn through a spigot.=20
Off and on, Mr. Rivera began working with charities and development =
groups to set up workshops for turning out the filters. He later =
improved the filter by developing a mechanical press and standardized =
molds to ensure a consistent product.
After Hurricane Mitch cut a swath through Central America in 1998, Mr. =
Rivera, who had been doing development work in Nicaragua for the =
previous decade, joined with a tiny American organization called Potters =
for Peace and went into high gear. "He became the guy you went to to set =
up a filter factory," said Daniele S. Lantagne, an engineer working on =
safe water systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in =
Atlanta.
Mr. Rivera often said that his goal was to set up 100 enterprises. The =
factory in Nigeria was his 30th.=20
Ronald Rivera was born to Puerto Rican parents in 1948. After graduating =
from World University in Puerto Rico, where the family moved when he was =
11, he joined the Peace Corps and spent two years working in Panama. He =
went on to do development work in Ecuador and Bolivia with the Peace =
Corps and with Catholic Relief Services, although he was an atheist.
It was while studying with the radical educational theorist Ivan Illich =
in Mexico that he learned to throw clay pots. "Illich said that human =
beings were disconnected from the earth, and Ron realized that he did =
not really know how to do anything with his hands," Ms. McBride said. =
"So he moved in with a Mexican potter and learned."=20
In 1977 he married Maggie Padilla, whom he later divorced. She survives =
him, as does their son, Demian Rivera of Bloomington, Ind., and Mr. =
Rivera's four brothers: Larry, of Parkland, Fla.; Eddie, of Miami; =
Dennis, of Orlando, Fla.; and Louis, of San Diego. After he moved to =
Managua in 1988, he and Ms. McBride, who had been high school =
sweethearts, reunited and eventually married. Three stepchildren =
survive, Camilo Power of Brooklyn, Ana Gabriela Power of Norfolk, Va., =
and Maria Belen Power of Minneapolis.
For the last decade of his life, Mr. Rivera traveled all over the world =
setting up microenterprises in Ghana, Cambodia, Yemen, Colombia and =
other countries. Many thrived, especially after Mr. Rivera began =
organizing the workshops as profit-making microenterprises. Some =
produced filters for a short period and then shut down, either abandoned =
by their sponsors or caught up in political turmoil, as was the case =
with a workshop in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Beverly Pillers, the chairwoman of the board of Potters for Peace, said =
Mr. Rivera's factories had produced about 300,000 filters, selling for =
$5 to $25, and used by about 1.5 million people. At the moment, 13 more =
filter factories are scheduled to begin operating by the end of next =
year.
"I saw Ron as a Pied Piper," said Robert Pillers, the treasurer of =
Potters for Peace. "He had the capacity to draw people in and then give =
them the means to accomplish something."
Sherron & Jim Bowen on mon 15 sep 08
Clean water is probably the most important resource that people around the
world need. Mr. Rivera was a great man.
JB
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----- Original Message -----
From: "miriam"
To:
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 6:18 AM
Subject: Ron Rivera, Potter Devoted to Clean Water, Dies at 60
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