[e-drug] Water purifying in developing countries

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E-drug: Water purifying in developing countries
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[Thanks to Valeria Frighi for spotting this. Copied as fair use. HH]

BMJ 2003;326:520 (8 March 2003)

News extra
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 CDCÆs 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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