The project took place in the basin of the Molo river, which arises from the Mau forest and flows into Lake Baringo, one of the areas on the one hand strategic for the country’s food security and on the other chronically affected by climatic and environmental crises, due to degradation. of the territory and the intensive exploitation of forest resources. In particular, we highlight: upstream erosion, reduction of water conservation and soil fertility; downstream reduction of the rainfall regime and the flow of rivers, with unpredictable flood peaks and consequent frequent floods.

NECOFA Kenya is the local section of a network present in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, made up of African agronomists expert in eco-sustainable agriculture, interested in research and dissemination in the continent of related practices through teaching and development work based on community. In Kenya it works with 176 community groups.

It is easy to understand what it means for the public health of a community to have drinking water, without worms, parasites, bacteria, fungi, poisonous salts. Such a good in many African countries is anything but taken for granted.

With this project we wanted to verify the efficiency of a new solar energy water purifier, tested in various countries and of which Mani Tese coordinated the experimentation in Kenya.

The water purifiers, provided free of charge by the Sun4People association, have a potential of 20 liters / hour. They run on solar energy, are installed on a concrete platform and have four different filters (sediment filter, activated carbon filter, ultrafiltration filter and reverse osmosis filter).

The Sun4Water technology is relatively new and therefore, first of all, in order to effectively test the prototypes there has been a strong work of training and awareness. Training was then carried out in the various sites and a general one in Nakuru, using the documentation material sent by the manufacturer, to familiarize the staff with the procedures for data collection, small maintenance and support of the local community.

In parallel with the training phase, visits were made to all the sites involved in the intervention, during which the beneficiaries were helped to form a management committee, responsible for the proper management and safety of the filtering system.

The consumption of the water produced by each filter system as a safety measure was authorized only after the laboratory of the Diocese of Nakuru confirmed its potability.

The experimentation was carried out on 17 devices, mainly installed near schools and dispensaries. Particular care has been taken to protect the system from animals or malicious people, using iron cages or steel nets.

The trial, which lasted 6 months, provided a series of extremely useful evidence, the most positive of which is the absolute ability of the filtering system to eliminate bacterial contamination, which is one of the main causes of gastrointestinal diseases, even fatal.

More problematic is the elimination of mineral salts, if present in particularly high quantities.

These and other considerations will serve to improve the efficiency of the filters in the future. In any case, about half of the filter systems installed are still in excellent working order and offer an invaluable service to the communities that have benefited from it.