by Dave Conklin on December 2, 2021

As a result of recent testing, both here in Oregon and at our field site in Uganda, we have made
some adjustments to the field trial. We have pushed back the distribution of the water boxes to test
households from November to January. We extended the work for our Ugandan colleagues, Mary
Mukoda and Nathan Namulgala, by three weeks, and increased their stipends accordingly. They are
using the extra time to modify and test each of the 29 water boxes currently on site in Uganda. Four
changes are being made in the field: 1) standardizing on bulbs from a single manufacturer, 2) changing
out a resistor to lengthen the timer interval when external power is used, 3) removing the generator
crank to make using external power obligatory, and 4) adding a datalogger board to record how much
the water box is used. The use of the datalogger board was suggested by our collaborators at
Engineering Ministries International. The other three changes were motivated in part by the discovery
that the level of contamination in tap water at EMI’s own Ugandan facilities is higher than we had
expected. In the area where the field test is being conducted, most of the households are connected to
the electrical grid, so the requirement for electrical power is not an impediment. Each water box comes
with a small AC adapter.

We are currently gathering a few items to send back to Uganda in late December or early
January. This small shipment will go with an EMI manager who is traveling to Uganda after the holidays.
It will include a UV-C light meter, another batch of Aquagenx water test kits, and a few other parts and
tools. Meanwhile, we are continuing a program of testing here in Oregon. More information about the
tests is available in my December blog for the uv-h2o-box.com website.