Chemical expert returns to the city after joining Fertinnowa project
Ockie van Niekerk, a Polokwane resident and chemical expert, has recently returned to the city after attending a Fertinnowa workshop in The Netherlands.
POLOKWANE – Fertinnowa is a project comprising 23 partners from eight countries in Europe and South Africa. They received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme to transfer techniques for the sustainable use of water in fertigated crops (crops where fertilisation is combined with the irrigation process) in horticulture.
Van Niekerk has been asked to join the three-year Fertinnowa project, of which one year is left, as they believe the processes developed by Optima Agrik can add value to sustainable water usage in horticulture.
One of the processes, the Sodium Reduction Unit, was successfully installed at a tomato producer in The Netherlands and it enables the producer to re-use its water in its nine hectare glass greenhouse, none of these with nutrients that could be harmful to the environment or contaminate underground water sources, rivers or dams.
According to Van Niekerk, he was initially contacted by a Belgian researcher through a Stellenbosch professor with whom he is working, to present his research in Belgium. This led to him being asked to join Fertinnowa.
Fertinnowa fills out questionnaires, compiles a data basis and reports which are written to identify gaps wherein growers could be more sustainable water users. Techniques are being made available to farmers and nurseries through their website, workshops and group consultations. The Fertinnowa website can be visited at www.fertinnowa.com.
Van Niekerk is the Managing Director of Optima Agrik, licence-holder of an internationally patented technology to cost-effectively desalinate brackish water and treat greenhouse waste water. The process generates recoverable by-products instead of waste. The by-products can be used as fertiliser which significantly reduces the cost of desalination.
Optima Agrik’s processes are based on ion exchange which has a major advantage when it comes to the desalination of ground water, namely the very low volume of concentrate compared to membrane based technologies.
This means the concentrate can be evaporated on an evaporation pan preventing the salts from re-entering the environment.
“Modern human activity, combined with the factor of population growth, is having a dramatic impact on the available water resources we as humans and all the other living organisms on planet earth need for survival.
Although the pollution caused by industry and mining receives the most press coverage, the impact of domestic waste and agriculture can no longer be ignored. The impact of these is more widespread and just as severe, but because it is not so dramatic it is often regarded as less newsworthy,” Van Niekerk explained.
He added his hopes to make a contribution towards the sustainable use of water with the processes he has developed.
