German technology giant, Siemens Limited has developed a new technology that could rid Nigeria of cholera, diarrhoea and other water-borne related ailments.
The company’s General Manager in charge of industry sector, Carlos Teodoro, unveiled the technology referred to as sky-hydrant technology last week in Lagos.
According to Teodoro, two third of the world will be water-stressed by 2025 while thousands of Nigerians are already being sent to early graves by water-borne related diseases.
Stating that contaminated "water kills five million people and causes 3.3 billion illnesses, every eight seconds a child dies of a water-related disease." Teodoro maintained that the "Siemens has developed the Water Technology to secure the future through resources management while the microfitration and ultrafiltration technology have the capacities to treat more than 1.5 billion gallons of water per day."
Urban water networks in Nigeria, the siemens GM said, "Are aging while many people live in water-stressed regions and water sources are being polluted by industrialisation, agricultural runoff, and lack of sanitation services."
Shedding light on the new technology, Teodoro noted that the new device "is intended for affordable community/decentralised water supply or disaster relief applications for production of potable water. It operates without the need for an electrical power supply, removes virtually all solids and bacteria and significantly reduces virus levels." The sky-hydrant, he continued, is economical, compact, easy to transport and quick to deploy and redeployed in the field, low cost housing, no power or chemicals required.
On the technological operation of the device, Teodore stated that the skyhydrant unit comprises of a single MEMCOR membrane sub-module in a low-pressure housing. Raw water flows along the length of the hollow fibres before being forced through the walls of the fibre to produce a filtrate virtually free of suspended solids. Chlorine addition occurs manually and a membrane a chemical cleaning sequence is required periodically to remove residual fouling.