Professors aim to help millions

THREE university professors, who have developed a revolutionary ground water absorption treatment system hope their work will change the lives of millions of rural South Africans.

The system, developed by Venda University professors Jabulani Gumbo and Wilson Gitari and Dr Antony Izuagie, reduces fluoride levels in drinking water.

It took the trio three years of research to finalise the system.

Gumbo said that this was one of his biggest achievements to date.

“This is the best thing. I’m so excited about it,” he said.

“The next step is to try and get funding so we can get the system into every person’s house in every community.”

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 400 rural South African communities depend on borehole water for domestic purposes, with dry areas such as Limpopo’s Vhembe district, where the scientists conducted their research, having high levels of fluoride in the water.

“Fluoride is important in the formation of teeth and bones if present in drinking water at the right concentrations, but borehole water in dry rural areas has too much ion fluoride which causes teeth to go brown and raises the risk of bone deformities,” Gumbo said.

“When we were looking at the communities around us, we saw this was a problem in these communities. We asked ourselves what we could do to fix this.”

He said there was an increasing need for technology to be used in isolated and rural communities to ensure the provision of safe and clean drinking water.

“We realised there was a need to develop cheap and high-capacity adsorbents, which make use of locally available materials, to ensure safe levels of fluoride in the drinking water in our communities.”

The three hope their patents on the treatment system can lead to increased funding to see it implemented and rolled out across South Africa and ultimately the continent, especially to places where borehole water is used.