Clean Water and Solar Power in Ngomano, Kenya

To download the final report, click here.

This page is about our first international project, based in Ngomano, Kenya. This project initially was devoted to finding a clean source of water for the village of Ngomano, but now is focused on the possibility of solar power for the secondary school and hospital of Ngomano. Kenya is located on the eastern side of Africa, near the Indian Ocean. Ngomano is approximately 60 miles southeast of Nairobi, off of the road from Nairobi to Mombasa. Click on the image to the right to view a larger map.BackgroundIn 2006, Annika Eberle (HMC '09) and Autumn Petros-Good (HMC '09), then presidents of ESW, were approached by Andy Leebron-Clay about doing a service project in Ngomano, Kenya. Clay, a trustee of Harvey Mudd College and sponsor of the college's Clay-Wolkin Fellowship, had been working in the village for about a year. Her involvement was the result of a collaboration between herself, Debra Akre, and Jeanne King. Together, the three founded Project Education, Inc. and the Clay International Secondary School in Ngomano (pictures right and below) to provide valuable education to the children of this underprivileged village. In addition to the school, Andy and her husband Jim helped to fund the purchase of chickens and vegetable seeds for the village and the digging of two wells to provide food and water to the school children and their families.After digging these wells, water tests were performed which showed that the water was heavily contaminated with calcium and magnesium ions, among other minerals, making it unsafe for drinking. The alternative was water from the subsoil of a dry stream bed which was also prone to high mineral concentrations. The Clays posed this problem to ESW/MOSS as one which might be solved through a demineralization and disinfection solution. In addition, several other projects were presented as potential other goals for the future. Annika and Autumn selected water disinfection as the most viable project possibility for ESW/MOSS to pursue. To pursue the project, the two pursued funding both from the Clay family as well as through the school's Strategic Vision Funds and Shanahan Funds.

Previous Research

ESW/MOSS formed a small team of about six students to tackle the problem of water demineralization. Working throughout the 2007-2008 school year, the group compiled a list of possible solutions ranging from reverse osmosis to slow sand filtration to solar stills. In December, four students, Annika Eberle (HMC '09), Autumn Petros-Good (HMC '09), Rob Best (HMC '10), and Dmitri Skjorshammer (HMC '11) were chosen to travel to Ngomano in the summer of 2008 to implement the final solution. However, due to violence following the presidential election in Kenya in December, the trip was postponed to January of 2009.

Throughout the spring of 2008, the group continued to work on the project and called on the expertise of Caroline Russell, an environmental engineer with the consulting firm Malcolm-Pirnie to conduct a workshop on chlorine disinfection. To see pictures from this workshop, click here. The students also consulted with the firm IdeaLab on the design and construction of solar stills. However, as the semester progressed, more attention was focused on the upcoming project in Koundara, Guinea (click here to learn more) and progress on the Kenya project slowed.

Following the disappointing news of their trip to Africa being cancelled due to civil unrest in Guinea in the summer of 2008, Annika and Rob suddenly found themselves with a month free. They used it to perform further research on the project in Ngomano. Researching several types of water purification methods, the two quickly ruled out options such as ion exchange resins and reverse osmosis due to power constraints or the limited nature of available resources. They identified two possible solutions in slow sand filtration and solar disinfection and purification. Using supplies available at the local hardware store, Annika and Rob prototyped a slow sand filter (left, made of a trash can, sand, gravel, and PVC pipe) and a solar still (wood and painter's tarps). Based on the feasibility of scaling the two designs and their ease of construction, the two decided the best solution for Ngomano would be a large-scale solar purification system with a bypass stream to introduce some minerals into the water for health reasons. Research was performed to determine the optimal shape and design of the filter, but only one could be prototyped before summer ended. For more images from Annika and Rob's summer work, click here.During August of 2008, ESW/MOSS received an updated water report from Ngomano detailing the state of the well water. The water is still salty despite beliefs that it might clear itself. Because of this, the Clays and Benson Mutua, the in-country director for the school, focused on pumping water up from the dry river bed to a storage tank in the village. This water is of better quality than that of the well, but is still very salty and has the potential during heavy rains to become contaminated with bacteria and algae. As a result, Rob, Annika, and Autumn switched their focus to ensuring the water was not contaminated with bacteria. With this objective in mind, they traveled to Kenya in January, 2009.While in Kenya, Annika, Autumn, Rob, and Professor Martonosi spent several days at the school getting acquainted with the project possibilities and people there. The team decided that purifying the water from both the well and the river was the best option. To this end, the students built a prototype of a solar still in the village similar to the one Annika and Rob had constructed the summer before. This presented a greater logistical challenge than expected as the supplies the students used the summer before were not available in the area of the village. So, after spending time outside of a hardware store in Wote, the team chose materials and built their solar still out of an old wood glue drum. In addition, Rob, Annika, and Autumn led a science lesson with the students at the Clay School about the water cycle and solar distillation. At the time of the visit in January, the pump from the river to the storage tank in the village was not operational. So, Benson and the students also met with an engineer in Wote to discuss the pumping requirements. Since the trip, a pump has been purchased by the school which is working and providing water to the school.

To read the story from the HMC website regarding the trip, click here.

To watch a video of the trip, click here.

To see pictures documenting the group's achievements in Kenya, click here

For a more comprehensive photo album from the trip, click here.

Current Research

After returning from Kenya, the team feels strongly that water purification is still a primary focus for ESW/MOSS and for the village. They plan to spend time further researching this topic with the intent of returning no later than the summer of 2010 with possible solutions to discuss with Benson Mutua and the members of the Clay for Earth Foundation and Project Education. The team this semester includes new members in addition to Annika, Autumn, Rob, and Dmitri. The new members include Evann Gonzales (HMC '12), Dalar Nazari (HMC '12), My Ho (HMC '12), Alex Hall (HMC '12), and Ozzie Gooen (HMC '12). Together, this new team plans to rethink the solar still concept and hold a design workshop to prototype several different methods of implementing the still to determine the fastest and most scalable. Annika, Autumn, and Rob also plan to give a presentation to the Harvey Mudd Community regarding their trip and what the next steps are. In addition to the ongoing pursuit of water quality, the team also recognizes the potential for projects involving electrical power, education, social and economic reform, and agriculture. ESW/MOSS welcomes any interest regarding this project and invites anyone interested in any of these topics to get involved. For more information on how, click here.

Relevant Documents

This section contains links to several pdf documents which describe some of our previous work and some of the technical background behind our proposed and prototyped solutions.