Abstract

INVESTIGATION ON WATER TREATMENT WITH OIL EXTRACTED MORINGA OLEIFERA SEED POWDER IN ETHIOPIA

Gemechu Lemessa* and P. S. Bedi

ABSTRACT

One of the major challenges of developing country like Ethiopia is quality of drinking water. The high cost of treated water make large population in the rural communities to resort to readily available water sources, which are normally of low quality exposing them to waterborne diseases. In the present study an attempt has been made to treat the unsafe drinking water by naturally occurring Moringa Oleifera (MO) seed powder. The results show at 200 mgL-1 and 2 hours both, concentration of MO and contact time respectively. The treated water samples falls within WHO drinking water standards in terms of physico-chemical properties like color, EC, pH, TDS, concentration of magnesium, calcium, chlorides and bacteriological contents. Locally available Moringa Oleifera was found to be effective, cheap and natural coagulant, flocculent, absorbent for the treatment of unsafe drinking water. Moringa Oleifera showed anti bacterial activity, the number of bacterial colonies were reduced with increased dose of Moringa Oleifera seeds.

Keywords: Moringa Oleifera, Antimicrobial activity, physico-chemical parameters for water quality.