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The long-term sustainability of household bio-sand filtration
conference contribution
posted on 2018-02-12, 15:08 authored by Eric Fewster, Adriaan Mol, Cleo Wiesent-BrandsmaThe introduction of intermittently operated slow sand filters, suitable for use at household level, is gaining momentum
in the developing world. An estimated 100,000 bio-sand filters are already in use, providing improved drinking water to
more than half a million people. Laboratory and field research has shown that bio-sand filters are capable of impressive
reductions of turbidity and pathogen levels. However, long-term sustainability, social acceptance and appropriateness have
not been well documented. An evaluation was therefore conducted in rural Kenya to measure the performance of filters
introduced 4 years previously. Measuring turbidity and E.coli removal rates, maintenance practices and user perceptions,
the study found all but one filter were still in use with over 70% producing water of good quality. Underperformance of
some filters pointed at poor maintenance habits. As a ‘point-of-use’ water treatment solution, bio-sand filtration seems
to be very appropriate, effective and cheap. Strategies to introduce this promising technology at a large scale need to be
seriously investigated.
History
School
- Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Research Unit
- Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
Published in
WEDC ConferenceCitation
FEWSTER, E. ... et al, 2004. The long-term sustainability of household bio-sand filtration. IN: Godfrey, S. (ed). People-centred approaches to water and environmental sanitation: Proceedings of the 30th WEDC International Conference, Vientiane, Laos, 25-29 October 2004, pp. 558-561.Publisher
© WEDC, Loughborough UniversityVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2004Notes
This is a conference paper.Other identifier
WEDC_ID:10559Language
- en
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