STUDENTS at a school in Clacton will help develop ideas to provide clean drinking water for African villages.

A number of Year 11 design and technology students were given a briefing by Gad Numadi, from the charity Water 4 All, as part of their GCSEs.

Part of their final coursework project entails finding a real-life problem to solve, within the design context of supporting developing countries.

A spokesman for the school added: “Four students have chosen to design and develop ideas for solving the problem of providing clean drinking water in areas of Africa.

“Gad has been working on developing a filtration system that is made in the UK, to provide clean drinking water in villages in the African state of Togo.

“The students saw the special filtration units in action and learnt about the manufacturing process.

“They also watched a film about what life was like in an African village and how water was collected and used by the villagers.

“They were astonished to see that the water, which sustains many villages, is often the equivalent to pond water, full of algae and dangerous bacteria.

“The quality of water often makes the people ill, meaning that children regularly miss school.

“During the dry season, villagers are unable to store water in their ‘ponds’, so children and women have to walk miles to collect water for their families.”

Gad showed the students the benefits of using the filtration units and spoke of his plan for every family in each village to have a special filter in their homes.