Deep Springs International (DSI), a non-profit organization based in Pennsylvania, USA, and Nokia Research Center (NRC), Palo Alto, California, are teaming up to ensure the supply of clean drinking water in Haiti with NFC (near field communication) technology.
DSI has been delivering water treatment systems (which essentially consist of a covered 19-liter bucket with a spigot at the bottom) and a locally manufactured chlorine solution it has labeled Gadyen Dlo (Creole for "water guardian") since 2007.. Photo: Michael Ritter, DSI
Water treatment kits are being provided to track chlorine levels in household drinking water using NFC-enabled cell phones. NRC provided the health workers with approximately 50 Nokia 6212 NFC-enabled phones while UPM RFID supplied UPM BullsEye™ NFC tags with NXP Mifare Ultralight chip. Joseph “Jofish” Kaye, Senior Research Scientist, NRC, initiated the project together with David Holstius, a student and Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health, who developed the software application for mobile phones.
Families in the most rural areas in Haiti will have one water treatment kit consisting of a five-gallon (19 litre) plastic bucket with a lid and spigot. The RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags are attached to buckets for storing the treated drinking water and delivered to families together with a chlorine solution and written instructions for using the kit. When DSI’s water technicians visit their homes, they check whether they are using the kits properly and provide additional chlorine solutions. The technicians will read the tags using NFC cell phones loaded with software guiding them to ask relevant questions about the water being tested. They then send the data to DSI’s headquarters via SMS. The software application uses the Frontline SMS platform.
A gadget that purifies and converts muddy water into potable water has been designed by a British student who will introduce it in India over the summer before producing it on a mass scale.
Oxfordshire-based student James Bartlett, 23, has designed the cheap and simple way to purify muddy drinking water without electricity. The gadget reportedly has the potential to provide millions of people across the world access to safe drinking water.
James Bartlett (right) showing the BlueDrop chlorine dosing system at Made in Brunel 2010
Adding chlorine is one of the cheapest and safest ways of disinfecting dirty water, but previous attempts have been either too expensive, or have not mixed the gas in the right amounts.
Bartlett’s invention has been to create a chlorination unit that costs just US$ 2 (Rs. 100 approx) to manufacture, and he is now waiting for a patent.
The gadget, named ApurvaJal (Hindi for “wonderful water”) works by harnessing the Venturi effect, which is used in carburettors to suck petrol into an engine’s air stream.
In Bartlett’s design, dirty water passing through a tube will suck in chlorine, which cleans it enough to make it drinkable.
He said early experiment showed it worked so well that, once perfected, it could make River Thames water clean enough to drink.
His invention, which he designed while studying a BSc in Industrial Design at Brunel University, was runner-up in the Xerox Innovation Award, presented to students who have come up with the best new inventions.
Bartlett said: “When this has been done before, it has had thousands of complicated metal parts to make it work, which you cannot get in rural India because the cost is too high. This project has been about designing one as cheap as possible which needs only three parts.”
He will spend his summer in Kolkata, India, getting feedback from people and perfecting the design before it is produced on a mass scale in India.
He said: “We want to turn it into a viable business which we can set up quickly if it works. I have tried it in the laboratory and I have been testing it in my sink at home. I’m prepared to give drinking river water a go, but a little bit more work needs to be done before I would want to try. If it works, it could save thousands of lives around the world.”
ApurvaJal is being produced by BlueDrop, previously known as LoChlorine when the project was initiated at the International Development Design Summit in Kumasi, Ghana in July 2009. BlueDrop’s founder and CEO, Suprio Das, grew up in the outskirts of Kolkata and has been working with NGOs in the region for the past 7 years.
Antenna Technologies (Switzerland) has developed WATASOL, a household water treatment and storage (HWTS) approach that integrates health education with the local production of chlorine in a sustainable supply chain, making safe water treatment an income generating activity for local communities.
WATA Devices
A WATA device requires water, salt and electricity. When immersed, and connected to a reliable source of electricity, a process of electrolysis takes place, converting the saline solution (sodium chloride) – with 25 grams of salt per litre – into active chlorine (sodium hypochlorite).
Three on-site chlorinator models are available:
Mini-WATA kit: 0.1 litre active chlorine/hour, serves 240 people (€ 40, excl. shipping)
WATA Kit: 1 litre chlorine/hour, serves 2,400 people (€ 200, excl. shipping)
In order to measure the chlorine concentration in a chlorine solution, Antenna Technologies has developed the WataTest reagent.
Available in 50 Countries
WATASOL devices are in operation in almost 50 countries, through community-based organisations, NGOs and local community and private enterprises. In 2009, Antenna Technologies introduced a franchising model with community enterprises.
"Uzima Mamas" in Goma, DR Congo, who sell water disinfectant produced by WATA devices. Uzima is a Swahili word with many meanings including abundance, fullness, wholeness, health, life and clean water
New Pilot Projects
With support of UNICEF in Mali, and the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency and Caritas Switzerland in South Asia, Antenna is launching two WATASOL major pilot projects. Their objective is to
To provide an autonomous and sustainable solution for safe drinking water at household level based on local production of chlorine through electrolysis
To control the quality of the produced chlorine and of the drinking water after the chlorination
To create income generating activities based on the local production and distribution of the concentrated chlorine solution to contribute to the promotion of HWTS
To establish methodologies for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of domestic safe water through the local production and sale of chlorine
To document and capitalise these experiences in order to replicate them
To prepare a “scaling up-phase” based on the know-how and lessons learned.
Mali
This project, which is supported by UNICEF aims at improving the quality of domestic water for 50,000 people in four priority zones in Mali.
The local production of chlorine would also allow health centres of these places to use a high-standard and cheap disinfectant. The following local NGOs are responsible for the implementation of the project in the identified zones:
The NGO Le Tonus runs a programme to fight cholera, which persists in the region of Kayes.
Formations Sans Frontières will equip ten health centres in the Mopti region with the active chlorine production systems, run with solar panels.
Aidemet works on the promotion and local production of chlorine in partnership with Antenna Technologies in the district of Kadiolo (Sikasso region).
AS EDEN plans to use electro chlorinators to treat water from wells in the municipality V and the suburban zone of Bamako (Ganouan).
ASACOBA works in partnership with Aidemet in the urban zone of Bankoni for the promotion of the local production of chlorine.
These zones of intervention have the advantage of representing a large spectrum of different situations: urban, rural and suburban settings; precisely one of the objectives of the project is to document the feasibility of the local production of chlorine of HWTS in diversified contexts.
South Asia
Antenna Technologies launched a two-year WATASOL programme together with its four partners. The aim of this programme is to develop viable economic models generating income for the people involved in the sale and promotion of chlorine.
Here is a brief overview of the partners and their implementation plans:
Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA) – Nepal: The objective of this project is to promote access to drinking water in schools and communities to prevent water-related diseases in the centre and the east of Nepal.
At the school level, the emphasis will be on raising hygiene awareness, access to safe water as well as to the reduction of sickness absences in schools. The production and the dissemination of the flasks of chlorine will be done by social entrepreneurs who ensure the quality of the product, its regular use and the hygiene consciousness.
Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSKB) – Nepal: This project aims at improving the access to safe drinking water for workers and their families in four brickyards in the valley of Kathmandu. The collected data shows that the productivity of the workers is impaired by waterborne diseases. The objective is to get to a win-win situation between the workers and entrepreneurs.
Development Alternatives (DA) – India: The aim of this project is to provide safe water systems to ten slums of New Delhi through the sale of chlorine produced by social entrepreneurs. The chlorine will be injected directly into the containers with water of the households. This project is combined with a large awareness-raising campaign among the communities.
Centre for Mass Education in Science – Bangladesh: The production of chlorine will be realised by trained disadvantaged young women who will be responsible for the promotion of hygiene and the sale of chlorine. This activity should generate a stable income for these women.
Founded in 1989, Antenna Technologies is a non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland. It is primarily a network of scientists, researchers and engineers working in tandem with a communications & coordination team. Funding comes from foundations, private donations and institutional funds.
A resident of Kathmandu has adopted ecological solutions to cope with the city’s persistent water shortage and power cuts.
Report of a visit to Dr. Shrestha’s Eco-home on 14 March 2010.
Dr. Roshan Raj Shrestha in his Eco-home. Photo: C. Dietvorst
Dr. Roshan Raj Shrestha built his Eco-home in November 2002. The two and a half story building is neither connected to the city water supply nor to the sewerage network. It uses several kinds of water conservation methods including rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling, ecological sanitation, Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) and organic waste composting. Dr. Shrestha says he was able to recover the extra investment of US$ 1,000 for his water conservations systems within three years.
The Eco-home has helped Dr. Shrestha cope with Kathmandu’s severe water crisis. The public water supply can only meet half of the actual demand and the city’s Bagmati river is turning into an open sewer. The ground water level is decreasing by 2.5 metres a year due to over extraction. The mega Melamchi Water Supply Project, started in 1998 to tackle Kathmandu’s water crisis, has been plagued by delays.
Rainwater catchment terrace and tanks. Photo: C. Dietvorst
With an average annual precipitation of 1,600 mm in the Kathmandu Valley, Dr. Shrestha found that rainwater would provide with enough water for his family of five. Rainwater is collected on two roof terraces and stored in a 9,000 litre underground tank. Excess rainwater is diverted into a dug well, which acts as an intermittent tank that can store nearly 10,000 litres and also supports shallow groundwater recharge. SODIS is used to treat rainwater for drinking water, while water from the dug well is pretreated first in a biosand filter.
Residents constructing new houses in Kathmandu now get a 10% tax rebate on their building permit fee if they include a rainwater harvesting system in their design. The rebate can reach 30% in other municipalities in Nepal, says Prakash Amatya, the Executive Director of NGO Forum.
No water goes wasted in the Eco-home. Dr. Shrestha has installed a urine diversion dry toilet in his master bedroom. Urine and composted feces are used as garden fertilizer. A small reed bed treatment system is used to recycle grey water for garden watering, washing the car and for an extra flush toilet.
Solar panel. Photo: C. Dietvorst
The latest addition to the Eco-home is a 100-Watt Solar House System (SHS), installed in 2009. The solar panels provide enough energy to light the lamps in the house. Costing US$ 1,000, the system is only affordable for middle-class families, Shrestha admits, but it has proved its worth now that power cuts of up to 12 hours a day have become standard in Kathmandu.
Dr. Shrestha is proud of his model Eco-home. He is happy to give visitors and groups of students a tour. He finds that people readily accept the concept of rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling. They are not so keen about ecological sanitation though, because of the socio-cultural barriers associated with feces.
Eco-home for sustainable living, Himalayan Times / UrbWatSan Nepal, 19 June 2009
Eco-home for sustainable water management : a case study in Kathmandu, Nepal. Ministry of Physical Planning and Works / UN-HABITAT. October 2008 (brochure)
Shrestha, R.R. (2007). Sustainable water management : a case study in Kathmandu. Presentation at Ecosan – Fortaleza 2007
SODIS water bottle. Photo: C. Dietvorst
Reed Bed Treatment System for greywater recycling. Photo: C. Dietvorst
Amin, M.T. and Han, M.Y. (2009). Roof-harvested rainwater for potable purposes : application of solar collector disinfection (SOCO-DIS). Water research ; vol. 43, no. 20 ; p. 5225-5235. DOI: doi:10.1016/j.watres.2009.08.041
Abstract
The efficiency of solar disinfection (SODIS), recommended by the World Health Organization, has been determined for rainwater disinfection, and potential benefits and limitations discussed. The limitations of SODIS have now been overcome by the use of solar collector disinfection (SOCO-DIS), for potential use of rainwater as a small-scale potable water supply, especially in developing countries. Rainwater samples collected from the underground storage tanks of a rooftop rainwater harvesting (RWH) system were exposed to different conditions of sunlight radiation in 2-L polyethylene terephthalate bottles in a solar collector with rectangular base and reflective open wings. Total and fecal coliforms were used, together with Escherichia coli and heterotrophic plate counts, as basic microbial and indicator organisms of water quality for disinfection efficiency evaluation. In the SOCO-DIS system, disinfection improved by 20–30% compared with the SODIS system, and rainwater was fully disinfected even under moderate weather conditions, due to the effects of concentrated sunlight radiation and the synergistic effects of thermal and optical inactivation. The SOCO-DIS system was optimized based on the collector configuration and the reflective base: an inclined position led to an increased disinfection efficiency of 10–15%. Microbial inactivation increased by 10–20% simply by reducing the initial pH value of the rainwater to 5. High turbidities also affected the SOCO-DIS system; the disinfection efficiency decreased by 10–15%, which indicated that rainwater needed to be filtered before treatment. The problem of microbial regrowth was significantly reduced in the SOCO-DIS system compared with the SODIS system because of residual sunlight effects. Only total coliform regrowth was detected at higher turbidities. The SOCO-DIS system was ineffective only under poor weather conditions, when longer exposure times or other practical means of reducing the pH were required for the treatment of stored rainwater for potable purposes.
Article Outline
1. Introduction
2. Materials and methods
2.1. SODIS and SOCO-DIS systems
2.2. Microbial analysis
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Sampling site and characteristics
3.2. Characteristics of different weather conditions
3.3. The effects of the collector’s base angle and different backing surfaces in the SOCO-DIS system
3.4. Comparison of the SODIS and SOCO-DIS systems
3.4.1. The effects of radiation and temperature effects on microbial inactivation
3.4.2. The effects of initial pH values on disinfection efficiency
3.4.3. The effects of initial turbidity values on disinfection efficiency
3.4.4. Microbial regrowth in SOCO-DIS system and comparison with SODIS
4. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References
Contact:
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, 22060, Pakistan, e-mail: muhammadamin [at] ciit.net.pk
bProfessor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Seoul National University, Shinrimdong, Kwanak Gu, Seoul, 151-742, Republic of Korea, e-mail: myhan [at] snu.ac.kr
[A]seminar on ‘Safe Drinking Water, was jointly organized by Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA Nepal), Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK) and Antenna Technologies, Switzerland on April 21, 2009 at Hotel Himalaya, Lalitpur. About 30 participants representing different social organizations, I/NGOs participated in the one-day seminar.
[Antenna Technologies has developed a WATA line of devices, part of the Watasol approach, for the local production of active chlorine through the electrolysis of salted water. The devices can produce chlorine for both drinking water chlorination and for disinfection or cleaning].Three different models [are available], the Mini-WATA, the Standard WATA and the Maxi-WATA. The Mini-WATA kit produces 1.5 litres of concentrated Chlorine Solution (6000 ppm) in 12-hours, [the] Standard WATA kit produces 1 litre per hour and Maxi-WATA kit produces 180 litres per day in 12-hours.
WATA kit for schools in Nepal. Photo: Antenna Technologies
Jai Rajbhandari from ECCA Nepal [...] told that [his organisation] has already installed WATA devices at twelve different locations and has provided training to the device handler. Among the 12 locations, eleven are producing chlorine solution using Mini WATA and one is using Standard WATA. The chlorine solution production stations are mostly schools, a brick factory and a community water distribution system. He added that ECCA – Nepal produced Chlorine solution in its office premises for the relief of flood victims during the time of flood disaster in the month of August, 2008 at Eastern Nepal. The supplied chlorine solution was sufficient enough to treat 80,000 litres of water.
[...] Mirza Md. Rafiqul Islam from Bangladesh representing Center for Mass Education of Science (CMES) presented [a] study [on the use of] WATA devices and their plan to implement [them] in the Basic School systems and alternative empowerment opportunities to disadvantaged groups. Mr. M. Manoj Kumar, a representative of Development Alternatives, Delhi, India presented a [...] case study carried out by the organization in Gol-Kuan Slum that could be [seen as a model for the] WATASOL approach in South Asia.
An affordable, sustainable drinking water treatment system designed by a U.S. laboratory is being used successfully in Ghana, India, Sri Lanka, Mexico, South America and the Philippines.
The technology, which uses ultraviolet light to disinfect water safely and cheaply, was designed by Ashok Gadgil at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
[...] The lab licensed the purification system to the U.S. firm WaterHealth International (WHI), which is working to expand access to affordable drinking water in developing countries.
WaterHealth Centre, India. Photo: WHI
[...] 1 million people have access to clean water from more than 200 WHI water centers in India, where the technology was introduced in 2006 and established through a partnership with the Naandi Foundation.
Other NGOs such as the Lions Club also have provided funding, as have several foreign-born physicians residing in the United States who want to support their home towns.
[...] In the past, donated or purchased water treatment technology sometimes failed [...] because communities had to struggle to maintain the facilities.
To overcome this, WHI developed “WaterHealth Centres” where water is treated centrally for a small community using a variety of approaches, including:
ultraviolet water disinfection technology, which is highly effective against harmful germs, and does not require high energy, high water pressure or sophisticated maintenance procedures;
new buildings, which also can be used for community meetings and social events, to house the systems;
local personnel hired and trained to operate and maintain the systems;
hygiene and health education programs that emphasize the economic benefits of avoiding waterborne illnesses;
narrow-neck water-storage containers to avoid water recontamination;
marketing to inform residents of the water treatment and its benefits;
financing for a portion of initial installation costs ($20 per person for a small village in India, for example).
WHI asks communities to make a down payment – sometimes provided by a local government, philanthropist or NGO – and then helps finance the remaining balance. Once the loan is repaid, the community owns the center.
To cover loan payments and operation and maintenance costs, consumers are charged a small fee for purified water. [O]ne village in Ghana charges 5 cents for 20 liters of treated water.
Local entrepreneurs often start businesses delivering treated water by bicycle or truck.
Customers at the WaterHealth Centre in Afuaman, Ghana, wait for their water.
[In Ghana] WHI partners with U.S. nonprofit World Vision Ghana for the health-education component of the program. In December 2007, WHI opened a pilot water center in Afuaman, serving about 3,700 people. [...] Construction of five additional WHI centers in Ghana will be completed by March [2009] in partnership with the U.S. nonprofit Safe Water Network, which funds the project.
“The government of Ghana has been extremely supportive at both the district level, by assisting the communities in raising the down payments, and at the federal level, by waiving import taxes and duties on imported equipment,” said Bismark Nerquaye-Tetteh, who has worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s West Africa Water Initiative.
