Safe water is undoubtedly the greatest necessity to humans, yet 1.1 billion out of the 7 billion in the world don’t have that. There are approximately 2.2 million deaths due to water borne diseases and hazardous sanitation issues. There is indeed a problem, but rather then continuing on there are multiple ways to treat contaminated water from the past, resulting in enhanced health of people along with an increase in development and productivity.
Water Supply and Sanitation has cost the U.S upwards of a $100 billion dollars, in the past but has often left us with disappointing results. In this commentary, Not Just a Drop in the Bucket, the authors identify two different low cost decentralized methods to clean up our water supply: Point of use chemical disinfection, point of use solar disinfection.
In areas where the water sources are already polluted and there is no function water treatment system, ultimately the responsibility goes to the people living around there because they are most at risk. The most obvious and practical way people think to decontaminate water is by boiling however there is “no residual protection” and rather impractical in terms of, one can’t exactly boil an entire river. However, the other method is to use “safe and inexpensive chemical disinfectants.” For instance, sodium hypocholorite has shown to be the most effective of all chemicals, and it is a simple agent found in most commercial laundry bleach solutions. Using a dilute version of this chemical has been used in the based and has “reduced diarrheal illness by up to 85%, from contaminated water,” and most importantly has helped those to quickly get safe drinking water who have been displaced by a natural disaster. The con is that the water is left tasting a bit bitter, especially water that has major sewage contamination, but this method does protect the water from the residual effect and is also cheap in cost.
Solar radiation is already harnessed for many other circumstances, and the authors of this commentary say it can also be used for water disinfection. This method is achieved by the use of “clear plastic soda bottles or bags,” whose ends are painted black, and are used because they contain a substance that automatically allows them to harness and transfer Ultraviolet light as well as their low cost. This method is most effective with turbidity greater than 30, and water temperature greater than 45 degrees Celsius. Solar radiation has proved to inactivate the pathogens of the water and is already used in many developing countries. Originally initiated and researched by called SODIS, a solar water disinfection project initiated by the Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries (SANDEC), this has been heavily implemented in Kenya with results being positive. This method is cost-effective, safe and it leaves the taste of the water unchanged.
In general these are two different methods to consider when thinking about cleaning up water. Rather than spending billions of dollars on projects that may or may not work, to immeaditely fix the problem there are many options and should be implemented in the extremely contaminated water ways.
Eric Mintz, Jamie Bartram, Peter Lochery, and Martin Wegelin. Not Just a Drop in the Bucket: Expanding Access to Point-of-Use Water Treatment Systems. American Journal of Public Health: October 2001, Vol. 91, No. 10, pp. 1565-1570.
