Dirty rivers become a source of life for rural residents with home-use water treatment device

The Amanzi eKhaya home water treatment project will allow people to collect dirty water from rivers, dams or even puddles and within an hour, have up to 50 litres of clean water to use. 

A hundred Ilembe families will be the first to benefit from the project, set to start in January.

The R850 000 pilot project was unveiled at the Chief Albert Luthuli Skills Centre in KwaDukuza last Wednesday. 

Isibaya Community Trust have invested the capital to start the project in Maphumulo and Ndwedwe as these areas have the highest number of people still without access to clean drinking water.

Environment and Language Education Trust (E LET) will be responsible for developing and installing the water plants.

Each plant incorporates all 5 of the conventional processes of a water treatment plant – flocculation, coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection.

Recipients will be trained to operate the plant at their homes.

Ilembe mayor Sduduzo Gumede welcomed the initiative and said it would make a huge difference in the lives of rural people.

“People from Maphumulo and Ndwedwe are the most affected with the shortage of water because dams in these areas cannot provide them with enough water. So while we are busy with a plan, this will help,” said Gumede.

He further gave an assurance that they have tested the plant and it was working well. 

“We used water from the Umvoti and Thukela river to test the plant and it worked very well, so we can assure residents that this is a safe way of cleaning water. Thank you to Isibaya Community Trust for assisting with this donation,” he said.