Low Cost Emergency Water Purification Technologies

Integrated Water Security Series

Chittaranjan Ray, Ravi Jain

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780124114654
• eBook ISBN:
  9780124115316
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environmental Management
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Natural disasters, tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods are occurring with increasing frequency. In emergencies, pure drinking water is quickly the most important item. Low Cost Emergency Water Purification Technologies provides the tips and techniques for supplying potable drinking water at low cost in the direst circumstances. Succinct and readable, this manual describes the various options for correcting unsanitary or unsatisfactory drinking water. Several treatment methods for contaminated water are reviewed and the pros and cons of each are discussed. - Covers long-term technologies including sand filtration, packaged filtration units, pressurized filtration systems and natural filtration - Addresses short-term strategies such as reverse osmosis-based filtration, cartridge filtration systems, and solar pasteurizations systems - Describes disinfection systems, energy-saving applications, cost considerations and HA/DR applications

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract

More than one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water sources (Lantagne et al., 2010). Many of these people reside in developing countries with very few resources available to them. Simple and low-cost technologies have been developed to provide ways to treat water, ranging from point-of-use (POU) treatment to small-scale (SS) community treatment. During natural disasters, POU and SS technologies offer ways to provide clean and safe drinking water. This guide to emergency water treatment has been developed based on current research, products, and field studies to create an expeditious and easy process for choosing which technology is most appropriate in each emergency situation.

Keywords

Water quality

Water treatment

Costs

Point of use

Internally displaced person

Contents

1.1 Standards for Water Quality and Quantity 3

1.2 Technology Requirements 4

1.3 Challenges in Providing Water Treatment for Disaster Relief 5

1.4 Costs 11

1.4.1 How Much Should Recipients Pay? 15

1.4.2 Relative Costs 16

More than one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water sources (Lantagne et al., 2010). Many of them reside in developing countries with very few resources available to them. Simple and low-cost technologies have been developed to provide ways to treat water, ranging from point-of-use (POU) treatment to small-scale (SS) community treatment. During natural disasters, POU and SS technologies offer ways to provide clean and safe drinking water. This guide to emergency water treatment has been developed based on current research, products, and field studies to create an expeditious and easy process for choosing which technology is most appropriate in each emergency situation.

Natural disasters, such as floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, and earthquakes, affect more than 226 million people every year (UNISDR, 2011). The occurrence of these natural disasters has been increasing each year (see Figure 1.1) due to the synergistic effect of climate change is causing more extremes in weather and growing populations are living in areas vulnerable to natural hazards (Lantagne and Clasen, 2009). Developing a guideline for emergency water treatment will become even more important as the number of natural disasters continues to increase.

Figure 1.1 The number of natural disasters of per year from 1985 to 2011 (UNISDR, 2012).

During disasters, water sources become contaminated with industrial, human, and animal waste from overwhelmed sewage infrastructures or because of poor hygiene practices. Diseases caused by waterborne pathogens can easily be spread by this contamination (Colindres et al., 2007; McLennan et al., 2009), affecting a large number of people, primarily in the developing world. Several billion people use water that is likely contaminated, resulting in approximately 2.5 billion cases of illness per year and about 5 million deaths per year (Burch and Thomas, 1998; Pejack et al., 1996). In the developing world, high rates of morbidity and mortality are caused by common illnesses spread by water contamination, including cholera, typhoid fever, shigellosis, dysentery, and hepatitis A and E (Lantagne and Clasen, 2009). In fact, 40% of deaths in internally displaced person (IDP) camps were due to diarrhea caused by drinking microbiologically unsafe water (Doocy and Burnham, 2006). The communicable diseases present in IDP camps were transmitted through unsafe drinking water. Because of this contamination, water treatment approaches may be valuable in helping to stem a “second wave” of illness and death after a disaster (Colindres et al., 2007).

The poor in developing countries are the most vulnerable to disasters because they do not have the resources to rebuild and fix infrastructures (UNISDR, 2011). After natural disasters, survivors either leave their country and become refugees or stay in the country and migrate to someplace safer, becoming IDPs. Close living quarters, lack of hygiene, and insufficient clean water supplies in IDP camps can exacerbate already poor conditions (Steel et al., 2008). Even if members of an affected community remain at home rather than moving to an IDP camp, there is still a chance that their water will become contaminated.

1.1 Standards for Water Quality and Quantity

During a disaster, clean water is necessary for survival. The main health problems associated with drinking water contamination are caused by insufficient water for hygiene purposes and consumption of that contaminated water. There are two standards defined by the Sphere Project (2011) for water supply standards. The first standard involves the quantity of and access to water, while the second standard regulates water quality. The minimum amount of water for safe and healthy consumption is summarized in Table 1.1. Water for hygiene use is considered a basic water need because it is important maintaining proper hygiene during disasters to reduce the risk of disease.

Table 1.1

Basic Survival Water Needs (Sphere Project, 2011)

Water Use	Minimum Requirement (L/day)	Notes
Survival needs: water intake for food and drinking	2.5-3	Depends on the climate and individual physiology
Basic hygiene practices	2-6	Depends on social and cultural norms
Basic cooking needs	3-6	Depends on food type and social and cultural norms
Total	7.5-15 L/day

Along with the 7.5- to 15-L of water per person per day, other water quantity indicators that can be used to measure the amount of water accessibility include:

• Distance from a household to a water point (~ 500 m);

• Waiting time at a water source (no longer than 30 min)

These standards should not be followed blindly, as they do not guarantee that water is equally available to all.

Water quality is a secondary standard, according to the Sphere Project (2011). Once water quantity has been assured, water quality should be improved to reduce the risk of dysentery and other diseases. The quality ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• About the Authors
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Technologies for Short-Term Applications
• Chapter 3: Solar Pasteurization
• Chapter 4: Disinfection Systems
• Chapter 5: Technologies for Long-Term Applications
• Chapter 6: Emerging Technologies for Emergency Applications
• Chapter 7: Water Infrastructure Development for Resilience
• References
• Index