Water filtration systems from Israeli company NUFiltration were donated to Cameroon to help fight a cholera epidemic there.

As ISRAEL21c reported in July, NUFiltration acquires and sterilizes used kidney dialysis filters that would otherwise be discarded and repurposes them in several filtration products.

One of these products, meant especially for hard-to-reach rural areas of developing nations, is a portable crank-operated machine capable of taking water from a polluted source such a river and purifying up to 500 liters per hour – enough to supply all the daily water needs of 300 to 400 people.

Last May, Israeli Ambassador to Cameroon Ran Gidor displayed NUFiltration’s portable unit at a public event showcasing innovative Israeli products for beekeeping and water purification. Gidor worked with the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s MASHAV Agency for International Development Cooperation to arrange a donation of $15,000 worth of NUFiltration equipment.

According to ReliefWeb, a cholera outbreak in Cameroon has claimed at least a dozen lives and sent hundreds of people, many of them children, to hospitals since May. The World Health Organization says cholera is primarily linked to insufficient access to safe water and adequate sanitation.

“Our aim is to share our technological advances in the domain of water purification with our Cameroonian partners,” said Gidor. “With simple, cheap Israeli technology we can assist those communities in Cameroon that have been afflicted by cholera.”

UN-approved NUFiltration systems also are deployed in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, the Fiji Islands, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Nigeria. They function for three years before needing new filters.

(via Israel21c)

[Photo: Israel21c ]