U.N report reveals that 3.7 per cent of deaths are attributed to water related diseases, and more than half of the world hospital beds are filled by people suffering from water related illness. Prof. Shem Wandiga, the chairman of Kenya Chemical Societies Association (KCSA) say that sixty per cent of Kenya's sick citizens are suffering from water borne related diseases like malaria, typhoid, and dysentery.
The Pan Africa Chemistry Network (PACN) report dubbed as “Africa's Water Quality” articulate that this is exasperated by many rural communities in Africa use of ground-, surface- or rain-water for drinking. “Many cannot afford the expensive chemicals required to disinfect water, so they have to take it as it is, or simply leave it to settle to remove the sentiments,” says the report, adding that: “It is therefore essential to provide low-cost methods for testing water quality.”
The U.N report which was launched on the theme “Clean Water for a Healthy World” says that 2 billion tons of waste water – including fertilizer run-off, sewage and industrial waste - is being discharged daily thus fueling the spread of diseases. Across the world it's estimated that 1.1 billion people rely on unsafe water sources.
Problems associated with drinking untreated water include: contamination of surface water by bio-organisms; contamination of ground water by fluoride, arsenic, nitrate, iron and more recently, chromium form natural geological sources or agricultural and industrial activities; and excess salinity due to sea water infiltration, the PACN report points out.
Lack of connectivity to treated water for many of smaller, poor or rural communities leaves them subjected to water borne diseases. “In these cases, technologies that produce water suitable for drinking need to be cheap, easy to use, robust and suitable for maintenance by the local population,” Wandiga says.
It is along this approach that Prof. Antony Gachanja of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) is steering water purification using natural plant coagulants, as it has been used by the indigenous people of the Kitui district to improve water quality.
Prof. Gachanja has carried out research on the indigenous Moringa oleifera seed and Maerua decumbens roots testing the water before and after treatment with positive results realized.
“The root of Maerua reduces the turbidity of slightly turbid water by 95 per cent and highly turbid water by 50 per cent but was found to impact colour to the water,” Ganhanja points out. While “the seeds of Moringa reduced the turbidity of slightly turbid water by 98 per cent, and highly turbid water by 77 per cent and impacts no colour and odour on the water.”
The don says that “the root of Maerua and the seed of Moringa reduces the pathogenic microbial count by 99 per cent and 100 per cent, respectively.”
For developing countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania where high levels of fluoride in ground water is reported which can lead to dental fluorosis, arteriosclerosis, thyroid problems, growth retardation and even kidney failure.
“Most of the methods currently available for removal of fluoride from drinking water are either too expensive, are technically unfeasible for household use or change the water quality,” says Zewge Feleke of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Thus they have come up with the removal of fluoride from water using aluminum hydroxide and a household defluoridation unit (HDU). Through HDU 90 per cent of fluoride is removed within one hour.
“This method is simple and has superior performance for the treatment of fluoride contaminated water,” says Feleke, adding that it has a “potential application in both household and community water treatment systems.”
No comments:
Post a Comment