The presentation of the charitable project promoted and coordinated by the Delegation of Rome and Vatican City of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George took place on 25 March 2024 in the Sala Silvestri at the headquarters of the National Research Council (CNR) in Piazzale Aldo Moro in Rome. The project relates to the construction of a water treatment plant, based on membrane nanotechnology, integrated with a solar system, intended for a Comboni mission in a village approximately 700 km from Nairobi, in northern Kenya.

This highly innovative water purification plant project, developed by the Institute for Membrane Technology (CNR-ITM) belonging to the Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technologies of the National Research Council, resulted from the meeting between the various parties, on the initiative of the liaison for the charitable activities of the Delegation, Prof. Luca Mazzola, Knight of Merit, who brought together this innovative technology with the concrete needs of a Comboni mission in Africa.

The system, which took a few months to build, will be installed at the Nakwamekwi girls’ primary school in Kenya, which has some 150 pupils. This will allow the school to have drinking water and will improve the quality of life of the entire village. The water purification plant, which is totally autonomous from an energy point of view, as it is equipped with a photovoltaic system with energy storage, can produce up to 1,200 liters of water per day (50 l/h), and has an estimated operating life of 10 years.

In Kenya as well as in other African countries, the population is often forced to walk for 3-4 hours every day, covering up to 10 kilometers, in search of water. Very often the water is not drinkable and carries diseases such as malaria, cholera, and typhoid fevers which are often fatal, especially for children. The latter are subject to a real natural selection from birth, due to the water problem. Only the strongest and those who first develop antibodies to these diseases manage to survive.  Therefore infant mortality is very high.

It is hoped that this system can help not only the girls of this primary school, but that these girls can bring drinking water into their homes for their families and especially for their younger siblings.

Institutional representatives of the various bodies involved participated in the presentation of the project which has reached its final stages:

For the CNR: the Director General, Dr. Giuseppe Colpani; the Director of the Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technologies, Prof. Lidia Armelao; the Director of the Institute for Membrane Technology, Dr. Alberto Figoli; the researcher Dr. Alessandra Criscuoli; and the technician Roberto Jerace.

For the Comboni Missionaries: Father Chmiel Sebastian Jerzi, Assistant General Bursar, representing the Bursar General, Father Angelo Giorgetti.

For the Delegation of Rome and Vatican City of the Constantinian Order: the Vicar Delegate, Prof. Giuseppe Schlitzer, Knight Grand Cross of Merit; and the liaison for charitable activities, Prof. Luca Mazzola, Knight of Merit.

The plant donated by the CNR will be shipped to Kenya by May 2024. 

The Delegation of Rome and Vatican City will take care of the logistical aspects relating to the shipping and customs clearance of the system in Kenya so as to have it arrive at the village between August and September 2024. Once the system is installed, the Delegation and the CNR-ITM will provide the necessary assistance to the Comboni missionaries.

This project represents an example of how science can be put at the service of the common good; in this specific case in favour of a small African community, which lives in extremely difficult conditions. The extraordinary nature of the initiative, however, is that it has been able to share mutual experiences and knowledge, so as to be able to adapt the technology to the actual needs of the end user.

The miracle of water

By Monsignor Luigi Ginami

President of the Santina Foundation

Mtangani, Kenya, 21 March 2024

We don’t know what a precious commodity water is.

Try it: stop reading, get up, go to the sink and open the tap: do you know what comes out? Water comes out. Now, burst out laughing and say to yourself: what stupidity. It’s absolutely normal. Now try to think of yourself in a hut crushed by poverty. You need water because the yellow bin is empty. Walk 6 kilometers there and back, and then you will realize that perhaps we are the stupid ones. Are we in Lent, a crazy exercise? Walk 6 kilometers to drink a glass of water and you will realize the great fortune we have in our homes, which is called water.

But the miracle is not over, shall we continue? Alright. It’s still quite cold in Italy. You will definitely have a tap with the color red, right? Try opening it, do you know what comes out? Hot water. And you also think this is obvious. But it is not so. Think about it when you shower.

And finally the miracle of miracles? Turn on cold water and you can drink it because the water is drinkable and in Africa this is not a given.

Three wonders in one tap: you have water in the house, you have cold and hot water, and, the greatest of miracles, you have drinking water.