Supported by the Veolia Foundation, engineers from the SAME Kaiserslautern and Boston Posts recently traveled to eight villages in Uganda to solve water quality issues affecting each community.
The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) used chlorine-based disinfectants and solar-powered systems to treat the water supply, with approaches that far exceed what many $0.50-per-day Ugandans can afford otherwise.
They began their visit in June last year, taking bacteria samples from 11 different water sources. Using rapid sand filtration, chlorine and solar panels distributed locally from Kampala, as well as the Veolia Force #5 filtration system, the team was able to reduce bacteria and turbidity (level of cloudiness) by nearly 100 percent.
Before treatment, original samples carried levels of contamination that were “too numerous to count.”
Although methods like the Veolia Force #5 filter are not yet mainstream in rural Uganda, appropriately priced units can fulfill the health needs of up to five people per day. In the short term, these solutions have culminated in a safe and effective collaboration with a national government that suffers from unclean water on a regular basis.
Learn more about the Veolia Foundation’s partnerships in Africa by watching the video below on its work to combat cholera in the Democratic Republic of Congo.