Idaho Front Page Article March 2, 2007

Safe Water for the World: University of Idaho Research Team Helps Bring Clean Water to Maasai Tribes

March 2, 2007

Note to media: Student and faculty team members are available to media upon the team’s return on March 6. University Communications and Marketing can schedule interviews, and make available digital photos and video clips from the trip. Contact Tania Thompson, University Communications, (208) 885-6567 or taniat@uidaho.edu.

NAIROBI, Kenya - University of Idaho students from the colleges of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Engineering zeroed in on the tiny moringa seed as one component of an innovative solution to address clean water and water availability in Africa. The teams - with students in the research lab back in Moscow, Idaho, and in the field in Nairobi, Kenya - are refining a process to create clean, safe drinking water and catchment systems for the nomadic Maasai tribes. The continental impact of the research could yield one solution to Africa’s clean water crisis.

For the student teams, the culture of Africa’s Maasai, which is resistant to outside influences, makes problem-solving for the tribal population a challenge.

"The idea we had at the University of Idaho is how to use local materials to remove hazards in water so that the water is safe for drinking,” said Don Elger, professor of mechanical engineering and one of the project advisers. “The moringa seed is tiny, abundant and works beautifully to filter harmful impurities from collected water.”

The student teams are divided into two projects: Clearwater-Aid, focused on creating biofilters, led by Tom Hess, professor of biological and agricultural engineering; and H2Oasis, focused on developing storage or reservoir systems for clean water, led by Elger.

“The lack of clean water is a global crisis,” said Elger. “One in five people in the world do not have safe drinking water and about five million people, mostly children and infants, die each year from diseases that come from contaminated water."

Elger and five University of Idaho students left for Nairobi on Feb. 22 and return on March 6. During the field visit, they are testing more than a year’s worth of research and design focused on water filtration and storage.

“The prototypes we are testing aim to reduce turbidity, or muddiness, in water and also remove harmful biological materials that can cause illness,” said Elger. Clearwater-Aid students turned to nature to address the problem. The morgina seed, at the heart of the filter, is a native, natural and portable material that is easy for nomadic Maasai tribes to use.

H2Oasis team members are constructing a catchment pond for storage to maintain a water source for the Maasai during the dry season to provide vegetation and water sources for tribal cattle.

Learn more about student researchers in the university lab and in the field through their online student journals at clearwater-aid.editme.com and h2oasis.editme.com.