Porvair donates water filtration system to Kenyan school

Hampshire-based filtration equipment provider Porvair Filtration Group has donated a new filtration system to the Olpalagilagi Primary School in Maasai Mara, Kenya to enable the staff and pupils to safely filter their own spring water.

Provided free of cost by Porvair Filtration, the system was then installed by the pupils of Gresham’s Senior School in Holt, Norfolk, as part of their educational trip.

Porvair Filtration general manager Mike Hughes said: "We’ve seen such problems first-hand in Africa, where basic drinking water can be a matter of life and death, and desperately wanted to help.

"The installation we encountered was an elevated storage tank fed from a natural spring. The design challenges included no power to generate pressure, so therefore a larger filter area was installed to allow for a slower flow rate.

"Drawing on our experience of similar aid projects in remote installations, we designed and donated the simplest system possible to protect the integrity of the process.

"Plus, the whole assembly also had to be broken down into small components so that the school children and staff could carry it in their hand luggage."

The pupils from Gresham’s Senior School was looking for help in deploying a water filtration system for the 200 students, aged between five and 12, of the Kenyan School.

On knowing their intention, Porvair Filtration donated a pre-filter as well as a membrane filter, along with the necessary housings to provide a complete system.

The company delivered its well-trialled Microfil and Biofil disposable cartridge filters to ensure the effective removal of contaminants, thereby providing safe and clean drinking water to all the students of the Olpalagilagi Primary School.

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Image: Porvair new water filtration system will enable the staff and students to filter their own spring water. Photo: courtesy of David Walker.

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