What does Africa need more – easy access to fresh water or better cheaper internet connections?

Rory Cellan-Jones, who blogs on technology for the BBC, travels to Mombassa, Kenya to see how a local NGO is using broadband Internet to bring water pumps to farmers. Here are excerpts from his blog entry of 15 September 2009.

The Super MoneyMaker Pump. Photo: KickStart

“My guide was Martin Rogena, a Kenyan working for an organisation called KickStart, which supplies irrigation pumps to farmers across East Africa. Martin is also a big believer in the power of the internet to transform countries like Kenya”.

“We set off [to] a poor suburb of Mombasa [where every shop] seemed to be selling mobile phones or offering to recharge them – and every few yards there was a stand selling fresh water at around 20p a litre”.

“Martin explained that Kickstart was a charity but it didn’t give away the “Moneymaker” pumps it supplies [but was charging] around £50 for a portable pump – far short of the cost of making and supplying them – and they are now in use right across drought-stricken areas of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda”.

“[At a] little settlement [...] about 10 miles from the beach where the Seacom cable bringing broadband to the region comes ashore, [Cellan-Jones met a group of] farmers who [...] had clubbed together to buy a pump. [The farmers supported around 20 people by growing tomatoes,] maize and some other vegetables”.

“These people had very little [and there was no electricity] but nearly all of them had mobile phones. [...] The farmers explained that the phones [...] had made them feel much more connected to the rest of Kenya”.

Martin Rogena of Kickstart on broadband. Photo: BBC

“Outside one of the huts, Martin Rogena got out his laptop, plugged in a broadband dongle [broadband wireless USB adaptor], and went online at a reasonable speed – he was picking up the signal from the nearby mast, which is in turn linked to the fibre-optic cable at the coast. But why, I asked, did a faster internet connection matter to a charity which was trying to alleviate the impact of drought?”.

“He explained that Kickstart collects data from every pump it supplies across the region, sending staff armed with laptops to talk to the farmers and make sure they are getting the right results. From its Nairobi office, It also needs to communicate with donors around the world and with its branch office in Tanzania”.

“The charity is already finding that faster broadband is making communication easier – and is cutting costs, though perhaps not to quite the extent that has been promised”.

“The farmers had never been on the internet – but they too were excited about what it might mean for them. “It will help us find information to help us improve the way we farm.” said one. “We will use it for marketing our crops to other countries outside Kenya,” said another”.

“We headed back into Mombasa, past lines of women carrying water containers on their heads. This country is short of lots of things – water, electricity, books for schools. But there is a great thirst for better connectivity – and who are we to say that they’ve got their priorities wrong?”.

Source: Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC dot.life, 15 Sep 2009

Ceramic filters: Ugandan schools get CrystalPur kits

Uganda has been selected as the only country in Africa to pilot a project that provides cheap and pure drinking water to schools and clinics in rural Uganda. Appropriate Technology (AT) Uganda, together with Enterprise Works/ VITA, with funding from the Diageo Foundation’s Giving for Good programme, has introduced CrystalPur ceramic water filters. The filters remove bacteria and parasites from contaminated water, thus preventing water-borne-diseases.

“The gadget does not need electricity or chemicals and has no effect on the taste of water,” says Michael Oketcho, the project manager. Oketcho explains that Uganda was selected because of its high usage of open surface water.

“Most rural people use water from lakes, rivers, wells, rain water and swamps, while in urban areas, 95% of the wells and springs contain faecal matter,” says Oketcho.

The gadget filters between four and six litres of water per hour. It is suitable for schools, households, hotels, health centres, camping teams, and disaster and emergency hit areas. It weighs less than 500g and can filter up to 7,000 litres of water (350 jerrycans) before the filter is replaced. For less than the cost of one bag of charcoal, CrystalPur fllters can deliver 7,000 litres of safe drinking water.

The filter has been tested and approved by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards.

Diageo Foundation has donated 3,500 units which have been distributed in over 150 primary and secondary schools in Kampala and Wakiso districts. The water filter programme started in October 2008 and will end in October 2009.

Source: Patrick Jaramogi, New Vision, 8 Sep 2009

CrystalPur filter. Diageo/EnterpriseWorks/VIA

WaterSanitationHygiene.org: technical resources and forum

WaterSanitationHygiene.org hosts technical resources – 873 at the moment – on water supply and sanitation ranging from well construction, school hygiene promotion, water treatment, water quality testing, emergency sanitation, water saving toilets, hand pumps, to centrifugal pumps. The database links to the publicly available documents from sector organisations like WSP, WEDC and WaterAid, on the originating website.

The web site also hosts a forum on topics as diverse as climate change, diarrhoeal disease transmission, reverse osmosis, ecosan, rainwater harvesting and geophysics. Vacancies and events are posted as well. Nearly 300 members have registered so far.

The site does not mentioned who is running it and how it is being maintained.

Drinking water from air humidity

Research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart working in conjunction with their colleagues from the company Logos Innovationen have found a way of converting air humidity autonomously and decentrally into drinkable water. “The process we have developed is based exclusively on renewable energy sources such as thermal solar collectors and photovoltaic cells, which makes this method completely energy-autonomous. It will therefore function in regions where there is no electrical infrastructure,” says Siegfried Egner, head of department at the IGB.

Drinking water from air humidity. Image: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

The principle of the process is as follows: hygroscopic brine – saline solution which absorbs moisture – runs down a tower-shaped unit and absorbs water from the air. It is then sucked into a tank a few meters off the ground in which a vacuum prevails. Energy from solar collectors heats up the brine, which is diluted by the water it has absorbed.

Because of the vacuum, the boiling point of the liquid is lower than it would be under normal atmospheric pressure. This effect is known from the mountains: as the atmospheric pressure there is lower than in the valley, water boils at temperatures distinctly below 100 degrees Celsius.

The evaporated, non-saline water is condensed and runs down through a completely filled tube in a controlled manner. The gravity of this water column continuously produces the vacuum and so a vacuum pump is not needed. The reconcentrated brine runs down the tower surface again to absorb moisture from the air.

“The concept is suitable for various sizes of installation. Single-person units and plants supplying water to entire hotels are conceivable,” says Egner. Prototypes have been built for both system components – air moisture absorption and vacuum evaporation – and the research scientists have already tested their interplay on a laboratory scale. In a further step the researchers intend to develop a demonstration facility.

Source: Fraunhofer, June 2009

For an overview of Atmospheric Water Generators (AWG) see the Wikipedia entry on this technology.

Most AWGs seem to be commercial systems sold in developed countries, although WaterMaker (India) Pvt. has installed an AWG system in the Indian village of Jalimudi.

A different technology to collect water from the air is fog collection, which has been widely used in developing countries in coastal areas in Latin America (Chile, Ecuador, Peru) and Southern Africa, and in mountainous areas such as Nepal. See the entry and links in the Akvopedia item on fog collection.