Safe Water in Rural Ethiopia

OU researchers work to provide safe water in rural Ethiopia

Researchers from OU's WaTER Center visited the country this summer as a part of the center's effort to help rural communities in Ethiopia's Great Rift Valley deal with elevated levels of fluoride in the area's water.

David Sabatini, the center's director, returned from Ethiopia earlier this month. Although the work has been slow, researchers are beginning to come up with methods for providing clean, safe drinking water to rural Ethiopians.

But developing those solutions is only half the problem, Sabatini said. Researchers have to make sure any method they develop can be handed off to local people once they leave.

"It’s not just about building something," Sabatini said. "It’s having the right community buy-in, the right realization of the importance, the right ability to maintain once it’s installed and keep it running."

The WaTER Center — or Water Technologies for Emerging Regions — is a part of OU's School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science. The center's researchers work on water security issues in developing countries around the world.

Elevated fluoride levels

In the case of Ethiopia's Great Rift Valley, elevated fluoride levels occur naturally in the water, Sabatini said. That phenomenon exists elsewhere in the world, including some locations in the United States, he said.

Municipalities often add low levels of fluoride to public drinking water systems to promote healthy teeth. But when residents are exposed to higher fluoride levels, they may develop mottled teeth or bone deformities, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Many people in the parts of rural Ethiopia where the group is working exhibit those symptoms, Sabatini said. That makes it difficult for them to grow food to feed themselves, he said.

The group is working with the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy of Ethiopia and a group of non-government agencies. Using funding from Rotary International, the group hopes to develop a few solutions on a small scale, then hand those methods off to the water ministry to put into practice, Sabatini said.

During the most recent trip, researchers looked at using bone char to reduce fluoride levels. The activated carbon present in animal bones that have been charred in a kiln is one of the more common ways of dealing with excess fluoride, Sabatini said.

Researchers from the WaTER Center have also developed a method for creating bone char by using a chemical process instead of heat to activate the carbon found in animal bones. That process has been about four times as effective as using heat-charred bones, he said.

Electrodefluoridation

Using a third method, called electrodefluoridation, researchers place two plates of aluminum in water and run an electrical current through them. As the aluminum corrodes, fluoride in the water bonds with it and falls out of the solution, gathering on the bottom of the container.

Although the methods have been developed, there are problems with putting them into practice, said Jim Chamberlain, the center's co-director for education and outreach.

In an email from Ethiopia, Chamberlain said some of the biggest problems arise in unexpected areas.

Source: NewsOK

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