New technology aims to provide clean water

Scientist Murendeni Mafumo, the founder of Kusini Water, has created a water purification system that uses nanotechnology and macadamia nut shells to produce clean drinking water.

Nanotechnology is used to manipulate individual atoms and molecules.

The solar-powered water filtration system, invented by Mafumo, purifies water from any source. A pipe connects the water source to the device which filters the water between the shells and nanofibres to produce water that is safe for drinking.

Mafumo (33) said 1 000 litres of clean water are produced every hour for a period of 10 hours by the system that he has created. 

He explained that the connection pipe is fitted to the top of the device and water flows from the top through the system using gravity.

“It runs through the membrane and the macadamia shells, trapping most of the chlorine and bacteria,” he said.

The water filtration system is already being used in several areas, including Vembe in Limpopo and Heidelberg and Hammanskraal in Gauteng.

The system costs R55 000 and is aimed at assisting communities and schools rather than individual households.

“Our systems are installed in low-income communities such as informal settlements and rural areas,” Mafumo told Vuk’uzenzele.

Mafumo, who holds a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Chemistry from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, left the City of Joburg’s water agency, where he worked as a research and development official, to become an entrepreneur.

He said finding cost-effective solutions to some of the country’s water challenges had become increasingly important to him and he decided to leave the world of formal employment and dedicate himself to this cause.

His filtration system idea won the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) Pitch and Perfect competition in 2018.

After winning the Pitch and Perfect competition, Seda took Mafumo to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in the Netherlands. The trip has netted Mafumo potential investments from Europe and the United States of America.

For more information about Seda, contact their national office on 0860 103 703 or send an email to info@seda.org.za