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The long-term sustainability of household bio-sand filtration

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conference contribution
posted on 2018-02-12, 15:08 authored by Eric Fewster, Adriaan Mol, Cleo Wiesent-Brandsma
The 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 Conference

Citation

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 University

Version

  • 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

2004

Notes

This is a conference paper.

Other identifier

WEDC_ID:10559

Language

  • en

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    WEDC 30th International Conference

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