The government plans to acquire a machine to detect and reduce the amount of fluoride concentration in water in some parts of the country.

The Deputy Minister for Water, Amos Makala said here yesterday that regions most affected by the problem include Kilimanjaro, Manyara, Singida, Mwanza and Arusha.

He was responding to a question by Special Seats MP, Rebecca Mngodo (Chadema), who wanted to know government plans to protect residents in Meru District, Maji ya Chai Ward and Ngurdoto areas, whose teeth turn brownish resulting from high levels of fluoride concentration in water.

The legislature said it was the duty of  government to ensure its citizens get clean drinking water by containing fluoride concentration levels.

Makala said his ministry was conducting an exercise to check the best standard in all water sources to identify the most affected areas and making analysis on how to reduce fluoride minerals using simple technology.

He said 121 water sources in Meru District have been identified and analysis establishing that 55 of them have fluoride minerals concentration below four milligram per litre allowed for use.

According to him, the government in collaboration with an American Research Company on best water standard has made tests to remove harmful chemicals and disease elements in water using modern equipments that uses solar power with the capacity of being used at both the village and town areas.

He said experiments on such equipments that were conducted at Ngurdoto Research Centre managed to remove fluoride mineral concentration in water from 20 milligram per litre to 0.06 milligram.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has paged the safe level of fluoride mineral concentration in water at 1.5 milligram per litre of water.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

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