Environmental Health Environmental Health Photo of 2 African boys

Bibliography on Point-of-Use Water Disinfection

May 2008 Updates

  • Reverse Osmosis Sanitation System (ROSS) - ROSS allows people to collect water from a local source and, by pushing it home in a special wheeled container, purify it for domestic use. The gearing in the container creates a pressure differential across a filtration membrane, allowing only decontaminated water to pass through, purifying the water as it moves.

  • Water Quality Interventions to Prevent Diarrhoea: Cost and Cost-Effectiveness. 2008. T. Clasen and L. Laurence Haller. Geneva: World Health Organization. (pdf, full-text) - Building on our recent Cochrane review of the effectiveness of water quality interventions to prevent diarrhoea, we collected cost information from 28 country programmes and computed the cost-effectiveness of conventional improvements of water quality at the source (well, borehole, communal stand post) and four interventions to improve water quality at the household level (chlorination, filtration, solar disinfection and combined flocculation/disinfection).

Microbiological Effectiveness and Cost of Boiling to Disinfect Drinking Water in Rural Vietnam, by T. Clasen, et. al. IN: Env Sci Tech June 2008. (pdf, full-text) - We assessed the microbiological effectiveness and cost of boiling among a vulnerable population relying on unimproved water sources and commonly practicing boiling as a means of disinfecting water. In a 12 week study among 50 households from a rural community in Vietnam, boiling was associated with a 97% reduction in geometric mean thermotolerant coliforms (TTCs) (p < 0.001). Despite high levels of faecal contamination in source water, 37% of stored water samples from self-reported boilers met the WHO standard for safe drinking water (0 TTC/100 mL), and 38.3% fell within the low risk category (1–10 TTC/100 mL). Nevertheless, 60.5% of stored drinking water samples were positive for TTC, with 22.2% falling into the medium risk category (11–100 TTC/100 mL).

Difficulties in Bringing Point-of-Use Water Treatment to Scale in Rural Guatemala. Stephen P. Luby, Carlos Mendoza, Bruce H. Keswick, Tom M. Chiller, AND R. Mike Hoekstra. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 78(3), March 2008, pp. 382-387. In an earlier study in rural Guatemala, 257 households that received flocculant-disinfectant to treat their drinking water had 39% less diarrhea than 257 control households. Three weeks after completion of the study, national marketing of the flocculant-disinfectant was extended into the study communities. Six months later, we assessed frequency of and characteristics associated with purchase and use of the flocculant-disinfectant by revisiting the original study households and administering a questionnaire. Four hundred sixty-two households (90%) completed the follow-up survey; 22 households (5%) purchased the flocculant-disinfectant within the preceding 2 weeks and used it within the last week. Neither being randomized to the intervention group during the efficacy study nor combined spending on laundry soap, toothpaste, and hand soap in the preceding week was associated with active repeat use. Even after efficacy was demonstrated within their community and an aggressive sophisticated marketing approach, few households purchased flocculant-disinfectant for point-of-use water treatment.

2008 CDC Fact Sheets and Other Documents on Household Water Treatment (Printed copies of the documents below can be requested via an email to safewater@cdc.gov)
Small girl getting drinking water

 

January 2008 Point-of-Use Updates

  • Hand washing for preventing diarrhoea (Review), by Ejemot RI, Ehiri JE, Meremikwu MM, Handwashing for diarrhea prevention a reviewCritchley JA. The Cochrane Library, 2008, Issue 1. (pdf, full-text). Authors’ conclusions - Hand washing can reduce diarrhoea episodes by about 30%. This significant reduction is comparable to the effect of providing clean water in low-income areas.However, trials with longer follow up and that test differentmethods of promoting hand washing are needed.

December 2007 Point-of-Use Updates

August 2007 Updates

May 12 - PoU Activites in Nepal

  • Overview of HIP-UNICEF POU Activities in Nepal (pdf, 1.5MB) A presentation on HIP's support for a joint USAID/HIP-UNICEF point-of-use drinking water treatment pilot program in Nepal, made by HIP's country coordinator, Arinita Maskey Shretsha, during a visit to HIP headquarters in Washington DC, April 24, 2007.

March 2007 - Best Practices in Social Marketing Safe Water

January 2007 - Updated Bibliography on Point-of Use for Water Disinfection