Expert potter shares skills in visit to SRU
SLIPPERY ROCK — With 5,000 people per day dying of water- borne illnesses, Dick Wukich, international coordinator for the Potters Water Action Group and a retired SRU pottery professor, said clean water is one of the world’s biggest issues.
To help alleviate this problem, his group is working to establish a factory in Nigeria to make water filters made of pottery.
“Right now, our focus is on Nigeria,” Wukich said.
For two weeks recently, Wukich had Nigerian potter Ibukunoluwa Ayoola, who is the president of the Craft Potters Association of Nigeria, in the United States to discuss the problem, demonstrate his skills and learn more about techniques.
Ayoola, master potter of Atamora Village in the Nigerian state of Osun, was at Slippery Rock University for two days recently. He said lack of clean water is a problem in parts of Nigeria.
“There is no clean water at all in all of the villages there,” said Ayoola, who goes by IBK.
He demonstrated how to make the filters to students and others at SRU’s pottery studio. They are made of clay and sawdust.
The mixture is molded and pressed into a conical shape with a rounded bottom using a metal device. When the filter is fired in a kiln, the sawdust burns away, leaving tiny holes in the clay, which the water is filtered through.
The filter then can be placed over a container with a spigot.
Wukich said the filters are self-sustaining and will be owned by Nigerians.
He said there are 170 million people in Nigeria. To get a filter to every family of five, he said there would need to be 30 million filters.
“Now we have to get these filters out and distributed to the people,” Wukich said.
How long the filters last depends on how dirty they are, Wukich said. He said they can be scrubbed out with a brush, if necessary.
The Potters Water Action Group received a $10,000 grant from the American ambassador in Nigeria for the project. The group applied for the grant in June 2013 and was approved in August 2014. Wukich said the group is seeking other funding to keep the project going.
Using money from the grant, Ayoola said his group built four machines to aid in the creation of the filters.
Wukich said the goal is to establish a factory in Ayoola’s village to create these filters, and to train people to make them. Even if the factory makes 60 filters a day six days a week, it will take years to make the amount of filters needed. He said other factories could be established in the future.
During his two weeks in the area, Ayoola visited several places, including the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University, Braddock Hills Propel High School, and church and artist groups with Wukich.
He has returned to Nigeria.
