Removal of fluoride for clean drinking water

Every German uses around 120 liters of drinking water per day in private households. In the United States, the figure is almost 300 liters per capita and day. Whether for drinking and cooking or for washing and flushing the toilet – turning on the tap and being able to have water of the best quality and in unlimited quantities is a matter of course for people in industrialized nations.

If, on the other hand, one looks at the global supply situation, a completely different picture emerges. According to UNICEF, around 2.2 billion people worldwide would not have permanent access to clean drinking water by 2021.

The population of Kenya is also severely affected by this problem. Local organizations assume that almost half of the Kenyan population meets their daily water needs with contaminated water from rivers and lakes. Being able to buy clean drinking water is only financially possible for some of the approximately 50 million Kenyans.

But even where wells are drilled and groundwater is pumped in order to provide people with drinking water beyond the polluted surface water, there are hidden health risks. While the pollution of water from rivers and lakes is usually visible at first glance, groundwater often seems clean, tasteless and therefore harmless. In fact, in many areas of Kenya, long-term consumption poses a risk: high concentrations of fluoride.

The groundwater not only in Kenya but in large parts of the Rift Valley in north-east Africa is so high in fluoride that many people suffer from the effects of dental and skeletal fluorosis.

The severe skeletal diseases, which particularly affect growing children, are proving to be an additional long-term burden for the poor population in Kenya and other Rift Valley countries such as Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

In numerous successfully implemented projects, Harbauer Limited in Kenya demonstrates how groundwater can be cleaned with simple measures and the use of the special adsorbent HAPaqua , the fluoride concentration can be drastically reduced and clean drinking water can be made available.

Many of our systems are powered by solar panels and therefore function independently of the local power grid. This enables the systems to be installed in remote regions and offers the possibility of treating the water in a climate-neutral manner!

Our team at the Nakuru site produces the HAPaqua filter granulate on site in Kenya, delivers it in household filters and builds filter stations with capacities of up to 4.0m³/h for the decentralized supply of the population in rural areas.

You can find out more about our current projects and the advantages of the HAPaqua compared to conventional cleaning processes on the following pages.