By Tonnie Telgenhof Oude Koehorst
Keeping local drinking water treatment systems up and running in African countries is still extremely challenging. Maintenance and local attention to the systems are extremely important, besides the chronic shortage of financial resources.
Nedap’s Naïade water purifier has proven to be a very reliable and cost-effective system for water treatment for schools in remote areas.
At the primary school Centre San Marco, in Kanombe, Kigali, Rwanda, a Naïade system was replaced after 10 years of operation, supplying safe drinking water to 240 children and 20 staff members of that school. The Naïade system is used in combination with rain water harvesting.
Nedap distributor Impala Corporation is taking care of nine Naïade units in Rwanda and was set to install another nine units before the end of 2016, all located within 150 km of the distributor. All units were financed by the Dutch Soroptimist organisation.
The 2013 IUVA Green UV Award winning Naïade water purifier has been designed especially for rural areas. With the integrated bag filters and solar-powered UV disinfection unit, the system can supply safe drinking water for hospitals, schools and small communities at very low costs down to US$1.50 per person per year. The system easily can supply up to 3,000 L/day for 400 people. At a school in Tanzania, the result of the Naïade system was very clear: Within two weeks, 40 percent more children attended school, released from the troubles caused by chronic diarrhea.
The Naïade also proved to work very well at natural disaster areas where clean water distribution systems have been disrupted. Temporally, use of Naïade systems could prevent outbreak of waterborne disease. Units have been in operation successfully in earthquake areas in China (Ludian, Yunnan Province) and Ecuador near Portoviejo.
Nedap Light Controls is world’s leading company for electronic lamp drivers for ultraviolet lamps and supplied the lamp drivers for the largest ultraviolet disinfection facility in the world in Catskill‐Delaware. This facility delivers over 8,3 billion liters of high‐quality drinking water daily.
