Here is another innovation you might want to know about. You might remember a simple science experiment back in school that taught how to purify water. This particular experiment required us as students to have a funnel, a coffee filter, a bottle of dirty water and a clear jar. These items used together, in the right sequence enabled us to perform an experiment that scientists call water filtration… i.e., the purification of water. Water filtration is the process of removing impurities by lowering the contamination of water y using a physical barrier (in this case a filter), a chemical process (possibly chlorine tablets) or a biological process. Whatever process or method is used, its aim is simply to make water clean for drinking.
In the next week, we are going to talk about how we can purify our wastewater and make it safe. Unfortunately, unlike physical waste that can be burnt at a manhole, water does not give us that luxury. Water is at most times reused, however, the question we must ask ourselves as environment lovers is whether this water is conducive for us to use in the first place, especially in Africa. In Uganda alone, it is safe to say that our access to clean water doesn’t stretch to the furthest parts of our borders. Safe drinking water is a luxury to many areas within our countries and the massive numbers of typhoid infections are available to prove it. Typhoid, according to the coalition against typhoid, is an epidemic in Uganda with about 56,000 infections per year. With these numbers alone, we should be worried.
There are various ways different households have been able to treat their water. The most common method we use is boiling water, however, many low-income households can’t afford the expense that would require them to boil their drinking water every day. The alternative has been the reliance on chemical water treatment like the use of chlorine, however, chlorine has proven not to be the most effective or reliable way to treat water. Truth is, once chlorine is placed in the water system, it can only reach so far that by the time it reached the furthest district, there is a high chance that the water has been recontaminated.
However, hope is not lost. Timothy Kayondo, a young Ugandan innovator created a system which can adequately solve our problem. His Eco Mobile Purifier is a work of art that requires his team to collect, and sort food waste, peeling or bones that are treated with an enzyme that manufactures an end product called “activated carbon.” This activated carbon is then combined with sand and a UV lamp to make the system flow. In simple terms, he created a digital system that turns waste into an activated carbon water filter. The whole system fits into a portable box about the size of a large suitcase, easy to carry and secured against theft. An internal battery stores energy from the solar panel. The system can purify 300 litres of water an hour.
There is no limit to the innovations that have come up today to make our environment and communities better. While many schools and households may be unable to afford this system, some have gleefully signed on and can testify to its success. His aim is to provide clean, safe water especially in remote areas of Uganda where access to water is limited. Timothy’s team have already provided a number of devices to refugee camps and schools where they are in current use.
Pure Water is the World’s First and Foremost Medicine.
– Slovakian Proverb