LOCAL INITIATIVE SAVES THE DAY

THE ingenuity employed by CERAMICA Tamakloe, a local manufacturing company, is helping to provide safe water to flood victims in the North.
The company produces CT Filtron, water filters from local materials. The filters have been tested by the Water Research Institute of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), as well as the Department of Microbiology of the University of Ghana Medical School, among other institutions.
Tests carried out have shown that CT Filtron is able to remove completely pathogenic and parasitic protozoa as well as other microscopic organisms and debris from water.
The versatile nature of the filters has made them products of obvious choice for international organisations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Pure Home Water based in the North and Enterprise Works, local subsidiary of Dieago, owners of Guinness International, when floodwaters contaminated sources of drinking water in the three northern regions of the country three months ago.
The CT Filtron comprises a locally manufactured rubber bucket, wood shavings and an earthenware bowl made from local clay.
When the clay is mixed with the wood shavings, moulded and baked in an oven, the wood shavings are burned off and small microscopic pores remain in place of the wood shavings.
The earthenware bowl is then immersed in colloidal silver solution, which is tested and known to act as a magnet on micro bacteria.
The earthenware bowl is then fixed on top of the rubber bucket, with a tap at the base. Water poured into the earthenware is filtered to the base of the bucket and ready to drink.
Filtered water from CT Filtron is totally safe to drink and does not need any boiling to kill gems.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at his factory, Mr Peter Tamakloe, the brain behind CT Filtron, related the genesis of CT Filtron by describing his passion for art at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) that had led him to establish a business in ceramics after school.
He continued that in the early 1980s, he met one Mr Ron Rivera, who hails from Honduras in Central America, and the latter introduced him to the filters.
According to Mr Tamakloe, his excitement knew no bounds and he decided there and then to introduce them onto the Ghanaian market.
Ghanaians at first were not enthusiastic about the filters, in spite of all the tests and glowing reports issued by agencies such as the Water Research Institute of the CSIR.
However, Mr Tamakloe persevered. This paid off with the filters now gaining recognition and even winning the World Bank GDMP Innovation award at local and international levels.
Currently, CT Filtron has been selected as one of the 25 final products for the BID Challenge International award. The ceremony is slated for November 29 to December 7, 2007.

DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2007