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2009 E3 University Research Honor
Improved Water Quality in Northwest Tanzania
ENTRANT: University of Cincinnati Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
ENGINEER IN CHARGE: Daniel B. Oerther, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE
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Entrant Profile
Daniel B. Oerther is Professor and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the University-wide Center for Sustainable Urban Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Oerther earned his baccalaureate degrees from Northwestern University, and his masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign. Since joining Cincinnati in the autumn of 2000, Dr. Oerther has developed a vibrant extramurally funded program of scholarship and service; graduated numerous doctoral and masters students who work in academic, industrial, and government settings; risen in the ranks of leadership at the University and within the Environmental Engineering community-at-large. Dan received his license to practice professional engineering in the State of Ohio in 2004 and was awarded Board Certification in Environmental Engineering in 2005.
In 2005, Dr. Oerther was approached by the leadership of Village Life Outreach Project to provide engineering expertise in the assessment, design, and implementation of a comprehensive water quality program for three villages of more than twenty thousand individuals in rural, northwestern Tanzania. Through collaborations with students, faculty, and staff at the University as well as numerous volunteers of Village Life, Dan established a robust program of comprehensive water quality delivery including source water protection; potable water treatment with point of use technology for coagulation, filtration, and disinfection; and educational outreach to the community. From 2006 through 2008, Dr. Oerther visited East Africa on seven occasions. Today, water committees are established in each of the three villages, and through technology transfer more than three hundred point-of-use water treatment systems have been created providing measured improvements in potable water quality for more than three thousand individuals.
Project Description
Every day, around the world more than 5,000 children under the age of five die from preventable waterborne infectious disease. Sub-Saharan East Africa, including the countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi is one of the poorest regions of the globe, and an area ripe for dramatic social and economic advancement through improvements to potable drinking water. In 2003, Dr. Chris Lewis visited the Tarime region of northwestern Tanzania as part of his residency program in family health at University Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. Overwhelmed by the poverty of the region, and inspired by the will of the people to improve their lives and the lives of their children, Lewis returned to Cincinnati and began the process of establishing a Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) to unite communities to promote Life, Health, and Education.
During its formation, and continuing until today, Village Life Outreach Project (www.villagelifeoutreach.org) brings teams of physicians, nurses, and students on health brigades to provide much needed medical care to twenty thousand individuals living in the villages of Shirati, Roche, Burere, and Nyambongo. Early in the process, Lewis and the leadership of Village Life canvassed the community leaders to list the most important challenges to improve the living conditions of the villagers. Access to adequate supplies of safe drinking was identified as the overwhelming number one priority. In 2005, Lewis recruited Professor Daniel Oerther at the University of Cincinnati (UC) to become involved in solving this complex challenge of environmental engineering.
With financial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), UC graduate students, Ms. Sarah Pumphrey and Ms. Anna Hoessle, visited Tanzania in autumn 2005 as part of a Village Life medical brigade. The students collected rudimentary measurements of water quality and quantity, and evaluated the feasibility of using a variety of technologies to improve access to safe drinking water (e.g., Pur, SODIS, CAWST, and Potters for Peace). This study confirmed that many villagers consume untreated surface water heavily polluted with human and animal feces. Furthermore, initial discussions with villagers indicated that the more educated individuals were aware of the health threat from polluted drinking water, yet lacked the technical knowledge and the financial capital necessary to correct the situation.
During 2006, the results of the initial visit were used to inform the design of an engineering assessment brigade which included Oerther, Pumphrey, and UC engineering students Ms. Chelsay Brewster and Mr. Andrew Gorton. In autumn 2006, the team returned to Tanzania to: (a) hold extensive meetings with a cross section of villagers to identify details of existing potable water treatment technologies in the region; (b) evaluate sanitation and health conditions; (c) establish a social-economicpolitical infrastructure focused on improving water quality; and (d) pilot slow sand filter technology in primary schools as an initial solution.
After the 2006 brigade, Oerther and the team returned to Cincinnati and expanded their collaboration to microfinance professionals as well as other interested volunteers. Through an iterative design approach, it was concluded that source water protection, point of use treatment, and safe storage of clean water were critical elements which required immediate attention. Alternatives identified for treatment included disinfection (e.g., chlorine; solar), filtration (e.g., slow sand; ceramic filter candles; porous pots), and coagulation (e.g., Pur; seed extract from Moringa oleifera). Further, it was concluded that improved scientific assessment was needed, and that the success of any technology intervention demanded the establishment and nurturing of village water committees and local entrepreneurs.
Laboratory evaluation of treatment technologies was performed in facilities at UC, and the results were presented at the International Slow Sand and Alternative Biofiltration Conference, Mulheim, Germany. Early laboratory results and input from experts at the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, strongly suggested that a successful overall treatment design would include a multibarrier approach beginning with coagulation/ flocculation/ sedimentation with seed extract from M. oleifera, followed by slow sand filtration, and polished through solar disinfection.
Many efforts in developing countries have not incorporated a multi-barrier strategy, and few past efforts carefully linked scientific assessment with a community-driven approach. Therefore, this effort was substantially unique in scale (20,0000 villagers), design (multi-barrier), and implementation (science plus community).
During three visits in 2007, educated villagers capable of speaking English, Kiswahili, and Luo expressing an interest in water quality technology were recruited as a cohort of experts to begin the process of technology transfer. The first targets for intervention were the primary schools in each of the villages. A dozen slow sand filters were constructed from materials brought to Tanzania from the USA as well as using local materials. Water committees were formed in each village, and local entrepreneurs were recruited using microfinance projects to cultivate and sell saplings of M. oleifera for profit.
Since the summer of 2007, more than three hundred point of use water filters have been constructed in schools and individual homes by the villagers without any further capital investment from the USA. Members of the water committees have initiated cottage industries and are receiving modest incomes paid by villagers for the construction and maintenance of filters. With typical household sizes of five to ten individuals (i.e., 7 * 300), and schools with two hundred children (i.e., 200 * 6), it is estimated that more than three thousand of the 20,000 villagers in the region now consume treated water.
To document the effectiveness of the technology intervention, a water quality monitoring laboratory was established in Tanzania with financial support from the NSF. From October, 2007 through March, 2008, Pumphrey and undergraduate engineering student Ms. Elizabeth Dixon spent six months monitoring the performance of water filters, encouraging the cultivation of M. oleifera, and expanding efforts for solar disinfection.
The results of this monitoring effort provided conclusive, statistically-significant, scientific evidence that levels of total coliform, fecal coliform, and Escherichia coli were reduced from source water to finished, filtered water. Furthermore, health surveys indicated that prevalence of diarrheal disease was reduced in individuals consuming filtered water as compared to individuals consuming untreated water. This scientific approach was critical for evaluating when filters were not performing properly. Furthermore, the weight of scientific evidence was critical for stimulating the cottage industries. Basically, financial support from the USA provided scientific verification that a local effort to improve public health was effective.
While the project has resulted to date in the construction of more than 300 slow sand filters, the cultivation of more than 400 M. oleifera, and the regular use of solar disinfection for polishing, there remains a need to provide technical support and regular encouragement to meet the ultimate design objective of multi-barrier treatment technology, source water protection, and safe storage of treated potable water.
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