Water Purification Africa

Water purification denotes the process of making water safe for human consumption, but the term is also used for other cleansing processes to make water suitable for e.g. industrial or agricultural uses (see also water use Africa). To make water safe for human consumption, contaminants such as organic material, pathogens or chemical substances have to be removed from raw water (see also pathogens and contaminants).

Water purification should combine both software (behavioural change, e.g. invalid link) and hardware approaches (technologies based on physical, chemical or biological processes, e.g. slow sand filtration).

Some of the most relevant software tools for water purification in the Sub-Saharan Africa region are described below: invalid link, media campaigns, and the invalid link. Moreover, you will find an overview on some of the most relevant hardware tools for water purification in the Sub-Saharan Africa region such as solar water disinfection, chlorination, biosand filters and boiling.

At the end of this factsheet, you will also find an overview of tools. An exhaustive collection of software and hardware tools for water purification can be found in SSWM Water Purification Implementation Tools.

Social Marketing

invalid link is the use of commercial marketing techniques to promote the adoption of behaviour that will improve the health or well-being of the target audience or of a society as a whole. CARE Kenya, for example, uses a combined social marketing/community mobilisation approach to successfully implement the Safe Water Systems (SWS) in rural communities in Western Kenya, Kenyan clinics and schools. Program results show that over a third of the target population adopted the SWS disinfectant solution in less than six months (MAKUTSA et al. 2001). A cost analysis of a social marketing initiative for “Clorin” brand product sold in bottles in Zambia shows that if the bottle price increased to $0.18, the project would be self-sustaining at maximum capacity. The analysis, which considers production, marketing, distribution, and overhead costs of “Clorin” before and after sales reached nationwide scale and sales revenue, demonstrated that efficiencies in the SWS supply chain can be achieved through social marketing. Even with a subsidy, overall program costs per beneficiary are low (BANERJEE et al. 2007).

Media Campaigns – Poster and Flyers

Posters and flyers (see also invalid link) are commonly applied to penetrate Safe Water System (SWS) products such as WaterGuard, PUR and Aquatab, etc. in the context of water treatment marketing and outreach/community mobilisation activities to the vulnerable population in Sub-Saharan Africa (see also invalid link). In Kenya for example, the Linda Kila Tone campaign ran during the last quarter of 2008. It sought to dispel the assumption that clear water is safe to drink, a key barrier to adopting point-of-use (PoU) water treatment. The campaign encouraged caregivers to “guard every drop.” In 2009, the program aired diarrheal disease prevention campaign radio spots (see also invalid link) as part of a broader child health campaign in Kenya. The Malezi Bora initiative ran for two two-week “bursts” in May and November and sought to increase health-seeking behaviours. Integrating messages on PoU water treatment into the broader campaign ensured water treatment as a key child health message and practice (PSI n.y.).

Developing Human Resources

The invalid link is at the core of sustainable development. People and communities that are empowered with the necessary knowledge and skills will be the architects of their own development and able to confront a diverse set of challenges in a rapidly changing social, economic and environmental landscape. A study of human resource development requirements in five countries – amongst them Mali, South Africa and Zambia – identified (amongst others) the following common human resource deficiencies in the drinking water, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH) sub-sectors:

1. inappropriate trainings: often recently qualified people lack some important competences that are needed to work in the WASH sector,
2. transition from academia to the work environment: there is inadequate support for the transition from academia to the work environment,
3. lack in work experience: there is a lack of opportunities to get practical WASH related work experience,
4. gender inequalities: in general there is a low level of women graduates from universities especially from technically oriented courses,
5. training of semi-skilled/unskilled technicians: formal vocational training are missing often and water and sanitation services are provided by semi-skilled or unskilled workers that acquire practical skills informally as apprentices or from members of their family (IWA 2011).

Chlorination

Chlorination of drinking water within the drinking water network (see also centralised chlorination) or at the point-of-use (POU chlorination) is common practice in many Sub-Saharan African countries. It is for example used in Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia (PELETZ & MAHIN 2009). The city of Cape Town, South Africa, for instance adds chlorine to drinking water to ensure the prevention of bacterial re-growth in holding water reservoirs and the network of pipes that transport water from treatment plants to homes (CITY OF CAPE TOWN n.y.) (see also prevention of recontamination). In Kenya, an innovative dispenser system has achieved remarkable and sustained use. The dispenser is filled with dilute chlorine and placed near a communal water source, allowing individual users to treat their water with the correct dose of chlorine in their jerry cans after it has been collected from the source (IPA 2011). A similar approach has been developed by the Swiss organisation (see ANTENNA 2010)in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique, and Rwanda: a special device producing chlorine solution from salt (see also WATASOL) is placed in water kiosk (see also water vendors and health posts from where it is distributed/sold directly or used to pre-treat drinking water for the population around.

Solar Water Disinfection

Solar water disinfection (SODIS) is a simple point-of-use water treatment technology that is applied at household level to improve the microbiological quality of drinking water with solar radiation. This approach is particularly adapted to regions which strong solar radiation. It is applied in many Sub-Saharan African countries such as Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (SODIS 2012a, PELETZ & MAHIN 2009). SODIS is e.g. implemented in the context of the Safe Water School project in Kenya covering 30 schools in Kisumu and Nairobi. In the Nyalenda and Manyatta slums of Kisumu, the project collaborates with 20 public primary schools totalling about 25,455 pupils. In Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, 10 public primary schools with some 12,673 pupils are participating in the Safe Water School project (SODIS 2012b). Because the SODIS process is dependent on short radiation, which is partly attenuated by the presence of clouds, dust or turbid water, solar pasteurisation may be an alternative.

Biosand Filter

Biosand filters (BSF) are a small, household sized adaptation of slow sand filters, with the advantage that they can run intermittently. This technology has been successfully applied in several Sub-Saharan countries, such as: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia (PELETZ & MAHIN 2009).

Boiling

Boiling is considered the world’s oldest, most common, and one of the most effective methods for treating water. If done properly, boiling kills or deactivates all bacteria, viruses, protozoa (including cysts) and helminths that cause diarrheal disease (CAWST 2012). The rates of water boiling vary regionally – 90.6 percent of households in Indonesia boil, whereas only an average of 4.5 percent use this technique across 22 African countries. Within Africa, the range is still high in those countries that have been studied - with 39.8 percent in Uganda, while almost non-existent in some of the other countries (ROSA & CLASEN 2010). In South Africa, for example, boiling (ca. 51%) and chemical treatment (ca. 42%) are the most commonly used treatment methods among rural households having unclean drinking water sources and treating their water (ANDERSON et al. 2011).