Simple, Low-cost Water Purification Could Improve Global Health
Two Princeton engineering groups hope to use technologies based
on inexpensive, easily available materials to give villagers in
developing countries access to safe drinking water and help
create local jobs. One group led by Wole Soboyejo, a professor
of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has developed a ceramic
filter made from a clay-and-sawdust mixture to remove pathogenic
bacteria from water. Baking the mixture burns off the sawdust,
leaving behind tiny pores that block microbes. Currently
available filters and treatment methods based on heat, the sun
or chlorine are costly, inaccessible or ineffective. The clay
filter developed in Soboyejo’s lab eliminated water-borne
diseases within weeks in a Nigerian village near Abeokuta, where
the researchers have helped set up a factory. They are now
transferring the technology to Burkina Faso and Kenya. “Local
people need to generate income from making these filters,”
Soboyejo said. “That’s the key