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U of A student's concept for a simple water filter to eliminate deadly contaminants has become reality in Kenya, Uganda

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These modest clay vessels, the brainchild of a dedicated group of University of Alberta students, cleans drinking water of the contaminants that cause diarrheal disease, a leading cause of pediatric death in Third World countries.

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Since introducing the CeraMaji filter project in 2007, the Kenya Ceramics Project now has a factory in Kiminini that employs 10 and is producing 400 water filters per month to sell to the people of Kenya and Uganda.

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Each filter, shown here placed here in a plastic sleeve, costs about $10 and will serve a household of five people for two to three years. That $10 is less than the cost of one round of typhoid medication for just one person.

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Finished product: In the past year, Kenyan Ceramics has sold about 3,000 filters to consumers in Western Kenya and Uganda. Dr. Abdullah Saleh, a surgical resident at the University of Alberta, says that once they absorb the cost of the infrastructure, Kenyan Ceramics should be able to run sustainably from the sale of the filters.

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