Low-cost water filter in Tanzania wins innovation prize

Jun 2, 2015

Judge Malcolm Brinded (R) said Askwar Hilonga's water filter could change lives all over the world

Its inventor, Tanzanian chemical engineer Askwar Hilonga, uses

nanotechnology and sand to clean water.

He told the BBC his invention should help the 70% of households in

Tanzania that do not have clean drinking water.

The prize, worth £25,000 ($38,348), was the first of its kind from

the UK's Royal Academy of Engineering.

Head Judge Malcolm Brinded said, "His innovation could change the lives

of many Africans, and people all over the world."

The sand-based water filter that cleans contaminated drinking water

using nanotechnology has already been trademarked.

"I put water through sand to trap debris and bacteria,"

Mr Hilonga told the BBC's Newsday programme about the filter.

"But sand cannot remove contaminants like fluoride and other heavy metals

so I put them through nano materials to remove chemical contaminants"

He said that before one filter costs $130 but, after winning the £25,000,

he will buy materials in bulk and the cost will reduce.

"For people who cannot afford water filters, we have established

water stations where people come and buy water at

a very very low, affordable price," he added.

Mr Hilonga explains on his YouTube video from 2014 that other resins

can remove up to 97% of micro-organisms but his target was to produce

nano-filter "that can 99.999% of micro organisms, bacteria and viruses".

His family regularly suffered from water-borne diseases growing up

in rural Tanzania, so when he graduated from his PhD in nanotechnology

in South Korea he started looking at nano materials that would be suitable for

water purification, he told Technology4Change.

The Royal Academy of Engineering aims to help sub-Saharan African

engineers to develop solutions to African challenges into businesses.

Mr Hilonga and the three runners-up, who received £10,000 each,

have already spent six months developing a business plan.

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