Browsing by Author "Selepe, T.N."

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    The evaluation of existing household water treatment system using World Health Organisation recommendations.
    (University of Zululand, 2014) Selepe, T.N.; Simonis, J.J.; Basson, A.K.
    Household water treatment technology coupled with nanotechnology research have been developed and managed to treat water at household level. This technology will help address United Nation Millennium Goals (UNMG) 2015 of access to safe drinking water within South African Development Countries (SADC). University of Zululand (UNIZULU) Hydrology Department has developed a low cost household treatment system (HWTS) using a traditional slip-cast process of inorganic and organic compounds mixed together and fired at high temperature to produce pores. The filter has shown high strength, high chemical resistance, and thermal stability and proved very durable when subjected to harsh operational conditions. When the filter properties were compared to other low cost HWTS, it shows increased porosity of 69%, pore sizes of 0.3- 4µm and flow rate of 1-2L/h. The HWTS was initially impregnated with metal oxides such as silver oxide (AgO), copper oxide (CuO), zinc oxide (ZnO) and iron oxide (FeO) using capillary suction dried in kiln to improve viral removal. The impacts of these metal oxides were tested on selected bacteria, protozoa and bacteriophages. The selected bacteria show log reduction value (LRV) of 5, protozoa LRV of >6 and bacteriophages LRV 2.8 for AgO and CuO showing LRV of 4. Field testing was repeatedly performed over a period of one month. Cleaning of HWTS was only done at the end of testing. The results were as follows: somatic phages were reduced by 99.999% while Fspecific phages showed a reduction of 99.999%. This concludes that UNIZULU locally developed HWTS has met WHO performance standards and can be utilised to uplift the impact of safe drinking facing the SADC.