The University of South Florida’s (USF) Patel School of Global Sustainability through its Center for Global Solutions launched the first Patel Grand Challenge at the International Water Association’s Development Congress in Malaysia on 21 November 2011. The challenge invites inventors in developing nations to create a low-cost and easy-to-use water purification device that could save millions from the perils of contaminated drinking water.
The challenge was issued by Dr. Kiran C. Patel during the congress’ opening ceremony to over 600 delegates from around the globe. (To access more details, conference photos, and press coverage go here)
The challenge welcomes pre-proposal submissions through March 2012. Five applicants will be shortlisted and awarded up to US$ 8,000. The five finalists will be invited to prepare full proposals that will be reviewed by an international panel of experts at a major event. The winning proposal will receive up to US$ 100,000.
More on the Patel Grand Challenge and the Patel School of Global Sustainability can be found at www.psgs.usf.edu
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.
M.K. Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu since 2009
The Deputy Chief of Tamil Nadu state, India, Minister M.K. Stalin [!] launched, on 25 August 2010, a programme for distributing, free of cost, Terafil water filters to anganwadi centres [kindergartens] by handing over such filters to representatives of 20 centres located in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts.
The low-cost filters, designed by the Central government’s Department of Science and Technology and Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET), could be maintained easily and without power supply.
It had been proposed to distribute, through the CIPET, 30-litre capacity filters free of cost to anganwadi centres.
During the current year [2010], 3,000 anganwadi centres would be covered in the initial phase, according to an official release.
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 low-cost water purification device that has been in development for more than three years was introduced on 7 December 2009 by India’s Tata Chemicals, which says the device is designed for use in rural households that have no electricity or running water..
The Tata Swach — Hindi for “clean” — also happens to meet US Environmental Protection Agency standards for removing microorganisms as well as off-color and off-taste, an AFP report claimed. AFP, quoting a newspaper report, said the device will be priced less than 1,000 rupees (US$21.75). Tata Chemicals said it would cost 30 rupees per month (US$ 0.64) for a family of five. The Pureit, a similar device produced by Hindustan Unilever, retails for 2000 rupees ($42.92), with a replaceable battery kit that costs 365 rupees ($7.80).
The Swach combines low-cost ingredients such as rice husk ash with nanotechnology. It uses ash from rice milling as a matrix, impregnated with nano-silver particles particles to kill the bacteria that cause 80 percent of waterborne disease, executives said in a report in Business Week.
While Tata’s device may be suitable for treating surface waters, it does not remove chemical contaminants like arsenic or fluoride, which are common in groundwater, used by 80 per cent of rural Indians.
The device has a 9.5-liter capacity and can filter 3,000 litres until the cartridge has to be replaced. A cartridge would last about 200 days for an average family of five, Tata Chemicals managing director R. Mukundan.
Business Week reported that Tata executives plan to invest 1 billion rupees (US$21.6 million) in the project over the next five years. The initial production will be 1 million units a year from a Tata Chemicals plant in Haldia, West Bengal, with plans to increase production to 3 million units annually within five years. Mukundan said the company would eventually look to sell the device in sub-Saharan Africa as well.
The Tata Group said it will distribute the device using distribution networks of Rallis, Tata’s agrochemical subsidiary with more than 30,000 retailers in rural India, and Tata Kisan Sansar, a farm services business run by Tata Chemicals, which reaches 2.5 million farmers.
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
Uganda has been selected as the only country in Africa to pilot a project that provides cheap and pure drinking water to schools and clinics in rural Uganda. Appropriate Technology (AT) Uganda, together with Enterprise Works/ VITA, with funding from the Diageo Foundation’s Giving for Good programme, has introduced CrystalPur ceramic water filters. The filters remove bacteria and parasites from contaminated water, thus preventing water-borne-diseases.
“The gadget does not need electricity or chemicals and has no effect on the taste of water,” says Michael Oketcho, the project manager. Oketcho explains that Uganda was selected because of its high usage of open surface water.
“Most rural people use water from lakes, rivers, wells, rain water and swamps, while in urban areas, 95% of the wells and springs contain faecal matter,” says Oketcho.
The gadget filters between four and six litres of water per hour. It is suitable for schools, households, hotels, health centres, camping teams, and disaster and emergency hit areas. It weighs less than 500g and can filter up to 7,000 litres of water (350 jerrycans) before the filter is replaced. For less than the cost of one bag of charcoal, CrystalPur fllters can deliver 7,000 litres of safe drinking water.
The filter has been tested and approved by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards.
Diageo Foundation has donated 3,500 units which have been distributed in over 150 primary and secondary schools in Kampala and Wakiso districts. The water filter programme started in October 2008 and will end in October 2009.
Swedish inventor, Petra Wadström, has unveiled Solvatten, a solar-powered water purifier, that she hopes will be used to provide household drinking water in developing countries.
Developed over a period of eleven years, the device resembles a standard jerrycan. It can be filled with up to 10 litres of water, opened out and left in the sun. A simple indicator uses a red or green face to show users when the temperature has reached 55°C and the water is safe to drink. It uses both thermal energy (heat) and UV radiation from sunlight, a created turbulence and a filter to treat water of up to 200 NTU. Water samples with more than 200.000 E. coli/100 ml have successfully been treated, the Solvatten web site claims.
Serving a family of five, a Solvatten device costs US$ 35 and lasts 5 years or more. The estimated cost per litre of water is 0.002 USD ( based upon 10 litres of water treated, 300 days per year).
The Solvatten company has already tested its device in Kenya and Nepal. In 2009 the first units of Solvatten will reach Nepal for a user study involving a number of families, schools and health centres. The programme is being implemented in collaboration with UN-HABITAT and ENPHO, the Environment and Public Health Organisation.
The Solvatten can also be used a solar water heater to produce hot water.
See videos below on Solvatten trials in Nepal and a product presentation by Petra Wadström.
Terafil technology will not only ensure clean drinking water in villages but also turn the rural people into entrepreneurs.
Chakdoha and Chapri, two villages of Ghatshila in East Singhbhum district [of Jharkand state, India], will play host to the pilot project.
The initiative has been taken by the Rural Development Trust under the Art of Living Foundation, Bengaluru. Terafil water filters have been designed by S.K. Kuntia, the head of design and rural technology department at the Institute of Mineral and Material Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar, a wing of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi.
[...] The terafil would cost around Rs 350 to Rs 500. The foundation has planned to rope in the corporate sector to help donate the filters as a part of their corporate social responsibility.
The filters would encourage self-employment, too. The foundation would also arrange for resources to train the villagers and help them turn into entrepreneurs.
[...] The filters are being manufactured and would be distributed across the two villages from March 31 [2009].
The Terafil water filter is especially suited for water that is rich in sediments, suspended particles, iron and certain microorganisms, i.e. for areas where water from both surface & ground water sources like dug wells, ponds, tube wells and rivers is used for drinking water.
Terafil (red clay) filtration disc. Photo: IMMT
Terafil is a burnt red clay porous media [...] produced from mixture of red clay (silt clay), river sand and wood saw dust, without using chemicals. The dough of the mixture of these materials is sintered at high temperature in a low cost coal / wood fired furnace to make the terracotta disc porous.
Domestic Terafil filter. Photo: IMMT
About 99% of turbidity, 90-95% of micro-organisms, 80-95% of soluble iron, colours etc. are effectively removed from the raw water during filtration process through the Terafil. 100% bacteria can be removed when a pinch (0.01 gm) of bleaching powder is added to a liter of filtered water. Rate of filtration is dependent upon turbidity and pressure of raw water over the Terafil.
Terafil filters are available for both domestic use and community-level use (gravity flow and on-line pressure flow models).
In 2007, IMMT had already licensed the technology for making and marketing Terafil discs to four parties in Orissa and had demonstrated the technology in several other states including Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya. Over 50,000 water filters had been distributed. The domestic Terafil filter was used extensively in Orissa in 1999 when the state was severely hit by a cyclone.
Contact: S. Khuntia, Head, Design & Rural Technology, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, P.O. RRL, Bhubaneswar – 751013, India. Tel (off) : 0674 2581635-39, Fax: 0674 2581637, 2581160. Email: khuntias [at] gmail.com, skhuntia [at] immt.res.in
Field testing of the Kanchan Arsenic Filter (KAF), a biosand filter modified to remove arsenic from contaminated raw water, is generating encouraging results in Cambodia and Bangladesh.
The KAF was found to be highly effective in Phase 1 testing, with average arsenic removals in the 95 to 97 per cent range. All of the 10 test filters consistently reduced levels from an average of 637ppb to less than 50ppb, which is the Cambodian standard for arsenic in drinking water.
Performance of the filters was consistent over the 30-week testing span, which produced 8,400 litres of filtered water.
Phase 2 testing, now underway, involves installing the filters in more challenging locations to determine if their arsenic removal capacity can be exhausted.
The tests will also examine hardness and pH levels, water usage patterns and include a social assessment.
Related news: Arsenic removal: field testing the Kanchan Arsenic Filter in Cambodia, Source Weekly, 22 Mar 2008
See also:
MIT TechTV video “Arsenic Poisoning and the Kanchan Arsenic Filter” here
