Project
Defluoridation
Ethiopia
Defluoridation in Ethiopia
This project, is led by NGO Amigos de Silva and a public research institution CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), aims to provide safe water to rural communities around the Rift Valley in Ethiopia by reducing the high fluoride levels currently present in the drinking water, to those below the limit of 1.5 mg/L stablished by the World Health Organization (WHO). To accomplish this objective, we will install an innovative water defluoridation system developed by a team of scientists from Addis Ababa University and CSIC in order to reduce the concentration of fluoride in the water in two specific locations around Ziway, and hence reduce the incidence of fluorosis among the two communities object of this action. This defluoridation system is based on the use of the abundant, commercial and cheap natural silicates known as zeolites, which are properly modified to adsorb fluoride present in water.
Chemistry in Ethiopia
Elimination of Fluoride from Drinking Water in the Rift Valley using Natural Zeolites and fluoride-rich ground waters are both usually associated to volcanic regions, and hence in this work we study natural zeolites as fluoride-adsorbents in order to develop a ...
Latest News
February 23, 2024
PhD Defense by Zewdu Bezu INVESTIGATING THE POTENTIAL USE OF EXHAUSTED NATURAL ZEOLITES IN SOIL CONDITIONING AND PHOTOCATALYSIS APPLICATIONS at Haramaya University, on February 23rd, 8:30 am
November 9, 2022
WORKSHOP Defluoridation and reuse of waste using natural resources in the rift valley (Rifawater)
Dra. Isabel Díaz, Senior Scientist of the AECID project, and Dr. Francisco Asís Moreno, country representative of NGO Amigos de Silva, project implementing entity, kindly INVITE you
March 11, 2022
March 11th 2022. Institutional visit of the Spanish Ambassador to Ethiopia,..
February 27, 2022
MSc. Dissertation Research, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Madrid Spain.
October 13, 2021
Technical Report on the scientific study of the reusability of the saturated adsorbent zeolite in soil conditioning.
February 15, 2021
Phase II of the project has been launched with success.
April 2020
A new donor has joined our project. In April 2020 we signed a Collaboration Agreement with the Spanish Fundación General CSIC for one year.
November 2019
CONGRATULATIONS! The plants have been officially Inaugurated.
October 2019
Project Completed.
July 2019
The team formed by CSIC and NGO have visited the two
defluoridation sites. All installations are functioning including the solar panel in site obe.
March 2019
Construction has started in Dida and Obe sites, under the supervision of Project Manager Dr. Taju Sani and the Head of the Salesians Mission, Aba Dido.
November 2018
MSc. Dissertation Research,
Loughborough University, UK
Mr. Dario Garcia Barrill is a student of MSe Water and Environmental Management at the Water Engineering Development Centre (WEDC), Loughborough University, UK. He has developed his own research dissertation on the topic of "Development of sustainable low-cost adsorption technologies for fluoride removal in Ethiopia".
May 2018
The Minister of Water, Irrigation and Electricity of Ethiopia, Dr. Eng. Seleshi Bekele has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the NGO Amigos de Silva aiming to contribute...
February 2018
Recently, a new donor has joined our project. In February 2018 we signed a Collaboration Agreement with the Spanish Foundation Juan Entrecanales de Azcárate for one year.
October 2017
In June 2017 our project was initiated with the generous support of the Swiss Foundation Stiftung Freie Gemeinschaftsbank. It is a two year project to implement a new defluoridation technology based on natural zeolites, in Ethiopia.