WATER PURIFICATION FOR GUATEMALA
Together, we will help families build bio-sand water filters to increase access to safe drinking water. Consumption of purified water will help reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases, which are the primary cause of death of children under five.
Together, we will help families build bio-sand water filters to increase access to safe drinking water. Consumption of purified water will help reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases, which are the primary cause of death of children under five.
The bio-sand water filter works in much the same way as large-scale slow sand filtration systems, which have been in use for water treatment for more than 150 years1. Mechanical trapping, which is related to the size of the pore spaces created between the sand granules, is the most obvious filtration system. Absorption of suspended materials to the surfaces of the sand granules also plays an important role. In addition, the filter benefits from a biologically active layer, which develops spontaneously in the microenvironment existing near the interface of the sand and water. Organic nutrients from the source water are trapped in the upper 2-4 inches of sand. Oxygen diffuses through the standing water from the air above to the bio layer, allowing aerobic respiration to occur. The community of organisms, which develops in this microenvironment, enhances the filter’s ability to remove bacteria and parasites2.
Funds are needed for educational workshops about the importance of clean water as part of an overall understanding about health, sanitation and hygiene. Training will also occur in which the people themselves learn how to build and take care of their water filters. A metal form is needed from which to make the cement forms. The people will supply the labor and even be asked to make a small contribution to the costs to take greater ownership of the new filters.
In order to carry out this effort in its entirety, it will cost US$22.50 per family with one bio-filter per family. Our intended reach is 1,670 families in the Lake Atitlán region. The results are a long-term solution to an extremely serious clean water problem among the very poor of mainly Mayan ancestry in the rural communities near Lake Atitlán, Guatemala.
1 Baker M. The quest for pure water: the history of water purification from the earliest records to the twentieth century. Denver: AWWA, 1981.
2 Palmateer G, Manz D, Jurkovic A et al. Toxicant and parasite challenge of Manz Intermittent Slow Sand Filter. Environmental Toxicology 199; 14:217-225.