Tweed engineer Kenya bound to upgrade safe-water plants
24 August 2018
New filtration membranes to extend life of plants for another 10 years
A Tweed Shire Council volunteer will travel to western Kenya on Monday to upgrade Safewater plants built by the Tweed Kenya Mentoring Program (TKMP), now in its 13th year of operation.
The program has built four water purification plants in Siaya, Nyanza province, about 10 hours’ drive from the capital of Nairobi, delivering safe water to 6000 people in four rural villages.
Council’s Acting Manager of Water and Wastewater Michael Wraight will spend two weeks in Kenya overseeing the installation of new microfiltration systems in two of the plants – established by previous Tweed volunteers in 2008 and 2009 – to give the people another 10 years of safe drinking water.
“The filters have a really tough but important job to do as people’s health and welfare depend on them,” Mr Wraight said.
“Unfortunately, the quality of the source water from four earth dams is very poor as the dams are also used by cattle and are highly contaminated by silt and manure.
“From an engineering perspective, creating purified water for these communities is essentially the same as what we do at the Bray Park Water Treatment Plant, where we also use membrane microfiltration systems. The difference is the setting.
“In the Tweed we have access to the world’s best technicians, tools and resources whereas in Kenya, where the mentoring program operates, there is no government support and little in the way of tools and resources to maintain the water treatment plants.
“My job in Kenya will be to replace the membrane filters, the core of the water treatment plants, to give them another 10 years of life.
Mr Wraight’s visit to Kenya will be the eighth by Tweed Shire Council volunteers. While there, he will renew TKMP contacts with local community leaders, politicians and government staff and bring back stories and images to the Tweed community to help further develop this important mentoring program.
Anyone interested in supporting this volunteer Council staff initiative can find out more by visiting https://tkmp.tweed.nsw.gov.au/ or contacting Council on (02) 6670 2400.
“It’s a great opportunity to see water supply and sanitation from a completely different perspective and to use the expertise and knowledge we have in the Tweed to provide safe drinking water to communities in need,” Mr Wraight said.
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Caption: Council’s Acting Manager of Water and Wastewater Michael Wraight is off to Kenya as a volunteer for the Tweed Kenya Mentoring Program