Water purifying system could save lives in developing countries

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Water purifying system could save lives in developing countries

Sarah Macdonald London

An affordable system to bring safe water to individual households in developing countries could save millions of lives, according to Population Services International, a non-profit organisation based in Washington, DC.

The Safe Water System, developed by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in partnership with the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization, uses a dilute sodium hypochlorite solution and community education techniques to bring clean water to poor communities. The system also recommends storing water in containers with a narrow mouth to prevent recontamination.

"The worst aspect of dirty water is that it gives diarrhoeal diseases to children. Some four to five billion episodes of diarrhoea yearly cause 2.2 million child deaths under the age of five," said Sally Cowal, vice president of Population Services International. Comprehensive testing of the Safe Water System in six countries showed that it cut the rate of diarrhoea by 50% in households where it was used.

Pilot programmes using the system are currently under way in 16 countries, including Kenya, Zambia, and India. At the Third World Water Forum—to be held in Kyoto, Japan, next week–Population Services International, the CDC, and Unicef will announce an initiative to expand these programmes to 23 nations and will be seeking partners to help them.

"More than one billion people still lack access to safe water, despite billions of dollars [having been] spent on water infrastructure in the developing world," said Eric Mintz, chief of the CDC’s diarrhoeal disease epidemiology section. "The SWS [safe water system] provides immediate help to people who have little reasonable prospect of safe water otherwise."

Dr Mintz said that the system had several advantages for people in developing countries over the water purification tablets (calcium hypochlorite) that travellers used when visiting such places. "It is easy to produce locally by either electrolysis of a solution of salt water or by dilution of commercially produced bleach," he said, which made it cheaper than tablets. Using a liquid solution also meant there was less danger of people consuming it in error than when using tablets.

Dr Mintz said the CDC carried out pilot studies of the system in the mid-1990s. "Only after the approach was repeatedly demonstrated to reduce diarrhoea and was shown to be feasible and economically sustainable on a large scale over the next decade [did] the international water and sanitation community come to accept it as a valid alternative and complementary approach to the traditional, more costly, and time consuming measure of constructing improved water resources and distribution systems," he said.

The CDC and Population Services International are encouraging the private sector in each country to produce the bleach solution and the proper containers. National governments will need to ensure that the bleach product is safe and correctly formulated.

"The CDC firmly believes that people should pay for this product rather than getting it free, because they will value it more and will therefore be more likely to use it," said Dr Mintz. A monthly supply of dilute bleach will cost a family $0.15 (£0.10; €0.14) to $0.30.

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