Pall filters aid drought-hit Pacific atoll

New Zealand authorities have put two drinking water filtration systems made by Port Washington-based Pall Corp. into use for humanitarian relief on Tuvalu, the drought-stricken Pacific coral atoll nation.

The mobile water treatment systems, which are set up at a wharf in the capital city, Funafuti, are operated by the New Zealand Defence Force, Pall said this week. They work by reverse osmosis and microfiltration, desalting 40,000 liters of fresh water daily for Tuvalu's 10,000 residents, the company said. The filters are delivering 2,000 liters per day to the area hospital and 1,000 liters to each of the three schools, with the remainder pumped to public works distribution points.

Pall sold the desalting equipment to the New Zealand Defence Force, company spokeswoman Marie MacLean said Thursday. She declined to disclose the selling price.

Earlier this month Tuvalu officials declared a state of emergency due to prolonged drought worsened by rising sea levels, which have contaminated fresh water tables.

The new prime minister of Tuvalu said in an interview, posted on the national government's website, that rising sea levels have infiltrated much of the island's fresh groundwater. Other factors are coastal erosion, coral bleaching and unfavorable movements of the wind phenomenon known as La Niña that have withheld rainfall in recent months.

International leaders have been working with the Tuvalu people to relocate them to another Pacific island where climatic changes have not endangered drinking water supplies.

Pall, with total revenues of $2.7 billion for fiscal year 2011, has almost 11,000 employees worldwide.