Well water desalination for school garden irrigation

The Trinity Academy in Boma Ng’ombe at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is a primary school with its own school garden, which is irrigated with water from the school’s own well during the dry season from May to October and cultivated by the children as an educational measure. However, as this water is very salty due to the local geological conditions, the use of the water leads to an impairment of soil fertility. A water desalination plant, designed and financed by Technik ohne Grenzen e.V. in Aachen, will enable the school garden to realise its full potential in the future. At the same time, the pupils will be taught on site how to use desalination as a measure for water extraction.

The primary task is now to select a suitable technology for desalinating the water and to choose an appropriate system. The local conditions and design factors such as the degree of desalination of the purified water, power supply, disposal of the saline residual water and ease of maintenance for the users on site must be taken into account.

The project is being carried out in cooperation with the NGO Appropriate Development Institution. The chairman of this organisation is the director of the school, Mr Ndosi, who has already carried out projects with Technology without Borders. This close cooperation also ensures that the school staff receive all the information they need to maintain long-term operation with regular maintenance cycles.