TITLE:
Low-Cost Sustainable Technologies for the Production of Clean Drinking Water—A Review
AUTHORS:
Sharmin Zaman, Sabina Yeasmin, Yasuhiro Inatsu, Chiraporn Ananchaipattana, Mohammad Latiful Bari
KEYWORDS:
Sustainable Technology; Clean Drinking Water; Low Cost; Bio-Sand Filtration; Natural Filtration; Solar Disinfection
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.5 No.1,
January
23,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Water has
always been an important and life-sustaining drink to humans and is essential
to the survival of all known organisms. Over large parts of the world, humans
have inadequate access to drinking water and use water contaminated with
disease vectors, pathogens or unacceptable levels of toxins or suspended
solids. Drinking such water or using it in food preparation leads to widespread,
acute and chronic illnesses and is a major cause of death and misery in many
countries. The UN estimates that over 2.0 billion people have limited access to
safe water and nearly 800 million people lack even the most basic supply of
clean water. The main issue is the affordability of water purifying systems.
Many people rely on boiling water or bottled water, which can be expensive.
Therefore, technologies that are cost effective, sustainable, ease of
operation/maintenance and the treatment processes with locally available
materials are required. In this article, some unique low-cost sustainable
technologies available/or in-use, i.e. natural filtration, riverbank
filtration, biosand filtration, membrane filtration, solar water disinfection
technique, biologically degradable materials such as moringa powder, scallop
powder treatment, and biosand pitcher treatments have been discussed.