Sustainability in domestic defluoridation

In the North Central Province of Sri Lanka, prevalence of dental fluorosis is in the range of 55-75 percent in the 7-20 year old school children. This has been further established by testing wells in these areas and it has been found that nearly 40 percent of these wells have fluoride rich water of more than 1.0 mg/L of fluoride. Thousand domestic defluoridators have been introduced in 50 villages in the north central province during 1994 to 1997. The first batch of 300 defluoridators are in operation for more than three years. These defluoridators have advantages such as simple in design, easy operation by villagers, absence of any maintenance, availability of the freshly burnt bricks in the locality and frequency of changing bricks in an average of four months for a fluoride content of well of 2.5mg/l. The performance and efficiency of these defluoridators are very good in the first two years thereafter lack of interest was shown if regular visits are not made to beneficiaries. Organisational structure is necessary to follow monitoring and evaluation of these units for a minimum period of five years to get the best from this locally developed technology.