UB undergraduate researchers Kelly Miller and Daniel Loscalzo have been working to find a natural water filtration system that could be used in Africa, where potable water is a luxury.
The students, like other researchers around the world, are trying to develop a plausible way to use the seeds of the Moringa tree to purify water naturally and with Africa's available resources.
"We are trying to find the most efficient and easiest way to develop water purification to help more undeveloped nations," said Loscalzo, a freshman civil engineering major.
While many scientists have been focusing on commercial use of this technique, Miller and Loscalzo are trying to make it easier for people to purify their own water at home.
"We are basically trying to make a cookbook instruction of how to use this technology in their homes, and testing out the dosages and what is needed, so individuals can have this technology," said Miller, a senior environmental engineering major.
To use the seeds for water purification, they are crushed into a powder and clean water is added, according to the Trees for Life Web site. The milky product is added to water and acts as a coagulant, attaching itself to any bacteria or silt in the water and sinking to the bottom of the container, according to an article in The Environmental Magazine. Then, the pure water is poured out.
"These seeds can be used to filter the water instead of expensive imported chemicals," Miller said.
Miller became involved in the studies through the Rural Africa Water Development Project (RAWDP), and the students have since formed a partnership with the organization. Miller and Loscalzo will conduct studies in UB's labs, and RAWDP will test their results in the field.
The students hope to help the Nigeria Delta area with their research.
Although Nigeria is the largest oil exporter in Africa and the eleventh largest globally as of 2007, according to the US Department of Energy Web site, potable water is a rare commodity.
In Nigeria, it was estimated that only 53 percent of the population had access to pure drinking water in 1990, and 62 percent in 2000, according to the World Health Organization/United Nations Children's Fund Joint Monitoring Programme.
"A lot of oil profits are coming from the area, but very little money is going back into the area, especially in their water," Miller said.
Nigeria is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and sells oil to the US.
Miller believes the US plays a role in the area's problems, and has a responsibility to try to find ways to solve them.
"It is very important to look at the big picture here and why developmental organizations like the RAWDP are set up in the first place, and understand the ways in which our own country contributes to the problem in the area of the Nigeria Delta and how our country will later go back and try to fix it," Miller said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
