School gets water - out of thin air!

Image source: www.cwmsa.co.za

Ankervas Primary school in the Uitenhage rural area was the first school to receive the Cirrus machine recently, after years of not having clean drinking water.

The Cirrus machine pilot project will generate about 100 litres of water through the atmospheric water generation process, which means the machine will make water from the cooling down of moist air.

The school caters for 640 pupils.

Water purification company Milton will lease the machine worth R80,000 from manufacturers Cirrus Water Management Rentals for the next year at R3,900 a month.

Infrastructure engineering and electricity political head Annette Lovemore said the municipality would assist in finding businesses to sponsor more machines to be sent to other struggling farm schools. "The municipality has the constitutional responsibility to make sure children have access to clean water," she said. "We will look at rural areas. There are other farm schools in the metro which need water." Lovemore said they would roll out the project in partnership with businesses.

Mayor Athol Trollip said the initiative could assist in saving water during the drought. "Drinking water from a bottle is a privilege because you know that it's clean and you won't get sick, but many people don't have clean water," he said. "They drink water where animals drink or where pollution goes into rivers. We want everyone to have fresh water to drink." Trollip said the school would hopefully have piped water in the future.

Ankervas primary school deputy principal Benita Gerber said the machine would make a valuable difference to the school. "Years ago we experienced a crisis with the water situation at Ankervas, we had no drinking water at all," she said. "We did not have water all the time. We had to make a phone call each time our tanks ran dry but with this machine we will have plenty."

Source: Herald