Almost everything that we do, from cooking a meal to drinking water, bathing or washing requires water. But much of the water that we use today has been degraded by some human activities. Leaving many people with the unfortunate result of receiving poor quality water. This is unacceptable by the United Nations as expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals, goal number 6 – ‘ensure the availability and sustainable management of water’.

Water purification is a very costly exercise, in most municipal cities, government foots the bill to have water cleaned for its citizens. However, this is not the case everywhere. Most rural communities have in the past (and still today) relied heavily on underground water and borehole water systems to collect water. Usually water of poor quality because of its degradation. And so, they have had to find their own ways to clean the water. These are known as traditional methods of water purification which make use of natural resources.

The use of ashes, also known as ‘activated carbon’

This technique uses burned carbon (ashes) to purify the water. Firstly, you need to burn some organic material, like tree wood. Then take the ashes and mix them with the water. It’s really that simple. The wonderful thing about ashes is that they don’t dissolve into the water. So, you most likely won’t drink the ashes. They also settle at the bottom of the water and any other particles still present can be removed by means of sieving. Just in case you swallow it, it’s not harmful to your health either. But what it does do is that when mixed in the water, the ashes attract all the dirt towards them, successfully drawing them out of the water.

Unclean water usually contains chloride ions, toxins, organic material and other minerals. All of these very harmful to human health in large amounts. The ashes decrease the amount of chloride ions, toxins and other minerals. But may still leave behind some other organic material and minerals.

The use of resin

To resolve the problem of the organic material and minerals left behind after using ashes, one could also make use of resin. Resin is a brown to amber looking substance that comes from the trunks of trees. In Sepedi, resin from a pine tree is called Burekhu. When you pass water through resin it reduces the high concentration of minerals (e.g. calcium and magnesium) in the water. This process is known as ‘demineralization’. The water easily passes through the resin because it is porous but it traps the larger sized minerals and they do not pass through it like the water.

Using ashes and resin (organic material) to purify water can truly help in many communities to improve the quality of water that people have access to. While also doing so in ways that are very sustainable and manageable for the people due to their inexpensiveness and access. You can even try it at home yourself.