Annual Report 2006/07 - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

Research fellowMarkus Schneider, EPFLSupervisorsIan W. Marison, EPFL /Tolly S. A. Mbwette, University ofDar-es-Salaam, TanzaniaCollaboratorsJamidu H. Y. Katima, UDSM, Tanzania /Peter Lüthy, ETH Zurich / Ahmed Hassanali,ICIPE, Kenya / Sixtus Kayombo,Harishchandra B. Pratap, UDSM, TanzaniaDurationOctober 2005 – September 2008Research Fellow Partnership Programme (RFPP)Drinking water treatment in Tanzania using seed extractsfrom the pan-tropical tree Moringa oleiferaThe Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)has undertaken considerable efforts to improve the extractiontechniques for distinct water-clarifying proteins fromthe press-cake of oil-bearing M. oleifera seeds. The droughttoleranttree M. oleifera is naturalised throughout the aridand semi-arid tropics and has been increasingly cultivated insmall- to medium-scale agroforestry systems in Tanzania.The main objective of the present project in Tanzania istherefore to evaluate M. oleifera seed protein extracts as apotential substitute to imported inorganic coagulants extensivelyused in water treatment processes.The specific research objectives are:(i) to evaluate the effectiveness of the seed protein extractsaccording to international (WHO) water quality standards;(ii) to provide a risk assessment of the seed protein extractsfor the water treatment;(iii) to assess the impact of the M. oleifera provenance sourcefound in Tanzania on the final quality of the seed proteinextracts.Conventional water treatment processes in tropical developingcountries depend substantially on imports of inorganiccoagulants. A locally available and producible bio-coagulantfor water treatment therefore may be of threefold socio-economicvalue:• On a rural village level: The promotion of M. oleifera as anew cash crop particularly in the arid and semi-arid tropics,which are among the poorest regions in the world.• On an urban industrial level: The various productsderived from mature seeds may create employmentopportunities.• On a national level: Dependency on imports of inorganiccoagulants may be reduced.Unlike for inorganic coagulants, there are no apparentenvironmental concerns for 100% bio-degradableM. oleifera seed extracts.A major part of research is carried out at the University ofDar-es-Salaam (USDM) in Tanzania. Both laboratory testingand consecutive trials in a containerised water treatmentplant are employed for the thorough assessment of theseed extracts.Moringa oleifera in an inter-cropped plantation with cowpea53