Project
Defluoridation
Ethiopia
Action
Where?
Two rural communities quite close to each other having wells that were put into service and operate under the supervision of Salesians missionaries have been selected. http://donboscoethiopia.org. These communities are Dida and Obe, 25 km from Ziway in the road from this city to Butajira, in the west. Ziway is a town on the shore of the Lake Ziway, in the central Rift Valley, 160 km south Addis Ababa.
Why?
In these communities there is no charge for taking water from the wells, contrary to what is common practice in government wells, a practice that discourage people from using these central water supply systems.
In Ziway town, it has been reported that for a concentration of fluoride in water of 2 mg/L, nearly all children suffered dental fluorosis, and nearly 20% of them already developed moderate to severe skeletal fluorosis. For water with 3 mg/L of fluoride, this figure raises to 35%. Indeed, prevalence of dental and skeletal fluorosis in the inhabitants of the Ziway Lake area had already been reported earlier. Local prevalence of dental fluorosis among 10-11 years old children of Obe village could be easily observed, and some of them even manifested skeletal fluorosis. Elder members of the community also suffered from the disease.
How?
The wells provide drinking water to the community with a fluoride concentration of 2 mg/L in Dida, and 3 mg/L in Obe. There is a primary school (students up to 10-11 years old) in Dida attended by 400 children, as well as a maternal and child health centre attended by nurses.
In Dida, it can be estimate that 1,000 persons (including the children of the school) consume daily water coming from the existing well. However, occasionally up to 3,000 people of neighbour villages might use this water supply system when their own wells are out of service due to electric power supply interruption.
When?
Initially we intend to install the defluoridation systems towards the end of 2018. Currently, the project is being signed with the Ministry of Water of Ethiopia, this section will be updated frequently.
