Find clean water sources: from small projects

According to current estimates, every minute has passed, there are 15 people in the world dying from lack of clean water and the situation will become more serious if there are no solutions. In fact, people have acted, although the efficiency is not as expected.

Naiade "water plant" is compact and operates with solar cells.

Six years ago, the United Nations once emphasized that the project had to ' reduce by half the rate of people without clean water to use ' by 2015. But according to a 2006 report, the situation is still There is no positive change. However, now that in Africa, Asia and South America today, the government has implemented a number of short-term solutions to better handle the water supply for people in rural areas that are lacking in clean water.

Not used to " buy water "!

For over a year now, in the small village of Panjkosi 4,500 people in India, the government has installed a simple water filtration system, operating on solar energy. This 'water machine' is only about 1.5 meters tall, including a container connected to the solar panel. Inside the bottle are two raw filters and a system that emits ultraviolet light to kill bacteria, viruses and pathogens in the water. When the weather is not favorable, this 'water plant' can still be operated by the power from a car battery. So, every day Naiade will produce 3,000 liters of clean water, enough for the needs of 500 people.

In addition to India, the water filter has also been tested in several Asian, African and Latin American countries. Technically, this 'mobile water throat' - made by Dutch company Nedap - has been tested and evaluated by the University of Marmara of Turkey as " 99% effective ", despite the fact. only 190 Naiade water filters were ordered, for 3,500 euros / unit. Reason: people in rural areas have not had the habit of having to pay to get clean water!

The second test

In Bangladesh, the World Health Organization (WHO) says 30 million people are at risk because of the toxic arsenic found in the soil, which affects domestic water supplies. So UNESCO and a sub-institute for water research called IHE have developed a filter that adds 'arsenic toxin to water', named Big Sister. And in fact, this "sister" proved very easy-going, because it works without electricity or fuel, just the material that is easy to find in the area is rust sand - sand is covered with iron oxide, a material that can "hold"

A mother helped her child take water from a public water tank in New Delhi (India) on March 22, 2007.(Photo: MANISH SWARUP - Reuters news agency)

arsenic from flowing water. So every day, Big Sister cleans about 100 liters of water for Dhunshi residents.

However, the above projects still face a big obstacle: lack of funding for mass production. Jean Fabre, who is in charge of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Europe, said: 'Calling for more active participation from public or private organizations is still the subject of long debate. internal institutions, non-governmental organizations and local governments. Developing countries generally have not contributed more than 0.5% of their GDP to the supply of clean water. So, the solution to call for support from individuals will probably soon be passed. '

Find water with MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) helps detect tumors early in the body and since then diagnosing cancer now has more interesting uses: exploring groundwater. Since 2005, hydrogeologists have used an MRI-based method to detect large groundwater flows (5-10m ³ / hour) in Burkina Faso (Africa) with one 'platform'. machine ' called Numis Plus.

Until now, to explore underground water, experts either had to close their eyes and drill, or play detective by studying the geological elements of that land, namely the electrical conductivity of the soil: If the soil has good electrical conductivity, it is due to dissolved salts in the water source at the site. But this exploration technique is not always effective, because the factors studied are not directly related to the water source below, but only from the soil layer above.

Numis Plus helps detect groundwater by the same method as medicine in medicine.

Meanwhile, the principle of "finding water by MRI" is based on the identification of protons in the nucleus of hydrogen - a key component of water molecules. Jean Bernard, director of the exploration tool maker Iris Instruments, explained the Numis Plus system as follows: "The same way as when we stimulate protons in hydrogen atoms in the water content inside. The human body to obtain a medical photograph, now the protons of underground water molecules will also be stimulated by an electromagnetic signal. " So from the feedback signals, the computer will draw the "underground image" of the explored ground area.

In fact, right from the 1970s in Novosibirsk, Russia, the group of Professor Semenov of the Russian Academy of Sciences proposed the idea of ​​exploring groundwater sources with proton capture techniques by magnetic resonance. They conducted many experiments and the results were very positive in 1978. By 1996, in cooperation with the Russian Academy of Sciences and the French Center for Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), the template Numis was born. This "pocket" detector system can be stowed in the trunk of a car, has been commercialized and constantly improved to be able to " look " to a depth of 100 -150m underground.

But that is not all. Because Numis operated purely on the principle that only water from the signals was transmitted and received feedback, the system also helped the survey team determine the water quality and depth of the water current exists and both the flow and the permeability of that land area. However, because the proton feedback signal is quite weak and often disturbed by the impact of other electric schools, Numis cannot operate at locations with industrial parks or near high-voltage lines, or at where the soil contains magnetism such as basalt.

And in fact, Numis is very suitable in Africa. Currently, experts still work on improving Numis so that in the future it is possible to minimize waiting time when conducting a survey. Because every day has passed in the world, the problem of lack of clean water has led to the death of at least 6,000 people.

M. Triet Photo: Phan Quang

The United Nations has chosen March 22 every year as World Water Day.This year's theme is Coping with water shortage.The United Nations says 1.1 billion people do not have enough clean water to use.And this number could increase to 1.8 billion in 2008. But the lack of clean water for use does not only appear in areas of severe water shortage, but paradoxically, it takes place in the region. living on the endless flow of rivers.


Numbers back to the country

• 1.6 million lives will be saved every year if conditions for clean water supply and health care services are improved.

• In the past 100 years, the world population has tripled, while the demand for water has increased six times.

• Demand for water consumption in the world in general is 600m3 / person / year, ie 50m3 of clean water.

• The demand for daily-life domestic water, per capita, has reached the following figures:
600 liters in North America and Japan
250-350 liters in Europe
50-100 liters in Asia and South America
10-40 liters in Africa


Exploration of underground water sources by Numis detector system

The magnetic field generated from a ring of ground-based conductors penetrates below to reach possible aquifers.The effect of this magnetic field will change the magnetic moment of hydrogen atoms in the composition of water.Next, it is the vibrating hydrogen nuclei that produce the feedback wave.This emitted signal will be received and analyzed by Numis.The results will show the current water reserve and the flow characteristics of the country in the region, in order to assess the ability of exploitation and how difficult it is.