EFFECTIVENESS OF MORINGA OLEIFERA SEED AS COAGULANT FOR WATER PURIFICATION

Abstract

The high cost of treated water makes most people in the rural communities to resort to readily available sources which are normally of low quality exposing them to waterborne diseases. It is in this light that this research was carried out to confirm the effectiveness of powder extracted from mature-dried Moringa oleifera seeds which is commonly available in most rural communities of Africa. This was done using Completely Randomised Design with loading doses of 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 g/L of the powder processed from Moringa seeds, and aluminium sulphate (alum) as coagulant. A control (water from the pond with only distilled water without alum and Moringa treatments) was also included. The turbidity, pH, and conductivity and total coliform were determined for all the samples. The turbidity for the samples ranged from log100.30 to log101.36NTU while the conductivity ranged from log102.29 to log102.72 μS/cm. The 12 g/L treatment of Moringa and 10 and 12 g/L alum treatments gave values that are acceptable according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines for safe drinking water. The control sample gave the higher extremes values which are unacceptable. The pH values (7.29 to 7.89) obtained for the treatments were in the recommended range set by WHO. The Most Probable Number per 100 ml for total coliform counts had values from 2 to 17 at 95% confidence limits. The Moringa treatment gave lower counts. Findings of this research lend support to earlier works recommending the use of Moringa for water treatment.