Ron Rivera travelled for 25 years to poor villages in Latin America, Africa and Asia teaching local potters to make what seems to be a big terra-cotta flower pot but is in fact an ingenious water purifying device. In 1998 he joined Potters for Peace and became Coordinator of Filter and International Projects.

On 3 Sep 2008, Mr. Rivera died in Managua, Nicaragua, aged 60, after contracting falciparum malaria [1] while setting up a water-filter factory in Nigeria.

Potters for Peace and Potters without Borders have set up memorial pages here and here.

[1] Falciparum malaria

Web site:Potters for Peace

Source: William Grimes, New York Times, 14 Sep 2008

See a presentation video on ceramic filters by Mr. Rivera below.

Tags: water treatment