Mudding the waters
Khetsirin Pholdhampalit
The Nation on Sunday November 6, 2011
More than 200 good-hearted folk turn out to a dharma centre each day to make EM mud balls
Baan Aree, a dharma sanctuary and wellness centre on Soi Aree 1 off Phaholyothin Road, is providing a much-needed boost for the spirits by inviting people to spend their time producing about 5,000 EM (effective micro-organism) mud balls every day to help disinfect contaminated floodwater.
The project, which was launched early last week, is drawing more than 200 volunteers of all ages each day, who work together mixing the ingredients and moulding the balls that are later distributed free to flood-affected people and institutions.
"The main problem of all flood-affected people is that the water is polluted and smells terrible. The EM balls are one of the environmental solutions to reduce water pollutants and improve water quality. Once thrown into the water, one EM ball can generally disinfect about five cubic metres of polluted water," says Suwit Chansirirat of Baan Aree.
Developed by University of Ryukyus professor Dr Teruo Higa, EM has a wide range of applications such as water and sewage purification, improving recycled water and solving sanitary problems. It is also widely used in agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and food production.
Microorganisms are crucial for maintaining the ecological balance. They carry out chemical processes that make it possible for all other organisms including humans to live. The fermentation emitted from the mud balls alleviates or destroys the ammonia nitrogen found in human effluents and sewerage leakages into the water system.
Each day, Baan Aree spends about Bt5,000 to buy the ingredients. The EM ball is made from fine and rough rice bran and sandy soil in a ratio of 3:2:2 before pouring in the liquid mixture containing EM activated solution and water to ensure it's not too wet or too dry.
The volunteers are divided into groups of five and each group has a plastic container containing the ingredients.
Volunteer Monthita Rojtinnakorn enthusiastically mixes the soil, liquid and rice brans together and compress them firmly in a small bowl before thoroughly kneading and forming the mixture into a tennis ball. To make sure the ball is compressed firmly and tightly enough, she is told to hold it by her knee then drop it on the floor.
"This is my first time here. The process of making EM balls is simple yet meaningful, everybody can do it. I wanted to do something meaningful. Before this, I'd volunteered to fill sandbags at Siriraj Hospital and Suvarnabhumi Airport and also packed relief bags at the Thai Red Cross. I've kept updated through Twitter and Facebook to see which venue requires volunteers," says the Chulalongkorn University student.
Once the balls are made, we are told not to leave them in direct sunlight. They must left in an open but shady area for five days. During fermentation, there will be white spots covering the mud balls: this is normal. The white spots are fungus, which is important for a successful ball that is ready to use. A ball under ideal conditions is effective for three months.
"Our problem right now is that the factory in Nong Chok district that supplies us with the ingredients has just been submerged by floodwaters. We are facing a shortage of supplies and what we have now is coming from donations. If anyone has a source where we can buy a large amount of rice bran, please call us," says Suwit.
"Another problem is we cannot produce enough balls to meet demand. Due to the shortage of supplies and our limited space, we can only produce about 5,000 balls a day. We also don't have a big enough space to dry all the balls we produce so the recipients need to dry them in the shade by themselves," he adds.
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