Professional Documents
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1.8
1.8 Household Water Treatment Processes
Water treatment is usually processes for a particular
accomplished in a series of steps application will be discussed.
which are used in both large These criteria can be used as a
water treatment plants as well as basis to select an appropriate
in household water treatment. technology.
Sedimentation
If the water contains suspended materials such as particles of sand, clay and other
materials, they can be substantially removed with very little energy by allowing the water
to settle for some period of time. This is accomplished through the use of a natural
reservoir, settling pond, or a large tank. When considering household water treatment,
even a small container such as a pail will allow a majority of the particles to settle.
The sedimentation process can be accelerated through the use of coagulants and
flocculants. These are natural and synthetic chemicals that change the electrical charges
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Module 1.8 Household Water Treatment Processes
of the suspended materials. This allows the particles to join together, thereby increasing
their mass so that they settle to the bottom of the container.
Bacteria and viruses are often attached to particle surfaces. Removal of particles by
sedimentation will produce a marked reduction in bacterial concentrations.
Filtration
Filters remove pathogens in several ways. These include straining, where the particles or
larger pathogens such as worms become trapped in the small spaces between the grains of
filter media; adsorption, where pathogens become attached to the filter media; or biologic
processes, where pathogens die naturally or the micro organisms which live in the filter
consume the pathogens.
Disinfection
Disinfection comes about primarily through the destruction of the organism cell walls by
oxidation. This oxidation is normally a result of the addition of chemicals such as
chlorine. It can also be induced by ultraviolet radiation such as natural sunlight or
artificial UV rays.
Pathogens can hide from disinfecting agents in organic and inorganic residue in the water.
Removal of suspended materials by sedimentation and filtration greatly improves the
performance of chemical disinfection agents.
The following is a schematic drawing explaining the basic steps involved in a typical
commercial or municipal water treatment process.
After initial screening at the inlet to remove the larger rock fragments and debris,
chemical coagulants are added to and mixed rapidly with the water. The mixture is then
mixed more slowly in the flocculation tank so that the suspended particles in the water
form larger particles. These large particles are then allowed to settle out in the
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Module 1.8 Household Water Treatment Processes
sedimentation basin. Filtration follows sedimentation. There are two principal alternatives
with respect to filtration; slow sand or rapid sand filtration. Rapid sand filtration is the
most commonly used. The filtered water is then disinfected before distribution and use.
Advantages:
• only choice other than untreated water
• usually less expensive
• faster to implement
• lower water volumes need to be treated
• entry point for hygiene and sanitation connections
Disadvantages:
• requires operation and maintenance knowledge
• requires motivation to ensure required maintenance is done
The daily water consumption for people connected to a piped water system ranges between 80
to 200 litres per person, whereas for people not connected to a piped water system, the daily
consumption of water is primarily for essential purposes and this generally ranges between 5
and 10 litres per person. Therefore, a typical family of five would use about 40 litres of water
daily for essential purposes.
In the following material of this module, we will attempt to address household water use
and treatment systems.
Household Sedimentation
Water storage to allow for settling of suspended particles is a simple method to improve
the water quality. Plain sedimentation, however, can only partly remove turbidity – which
is a measure of suspended solids – and faecal coliforms – the common indicator used to
quantify the degree of faecal pollution. The main health risk associated with household
water storage is the risk of recontamination through inappropriate handling practices.
Straining
A cloth fabric can be used to strain particles out of water. The following is a presentation
that discusses cholera in detail, but it does have a reference to the use of old sari cloth in
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Module 1.8 Household Water Treatment Processes
Bangladesh for straining water. If the cloth is folded such that there are eight layers, the
filtering of the cholera organisms can be very effective, and can reduce the outbreaks of
cholera.
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/forum/colwell/rc021023swedishacadmy.htm (Apr 05)
Coagulant Agents
To encourage settling of suspended particles, various additives can be put into the water.
A coagulant is a material which forms a gelatinous precipitate in water which then
collects fine particles that are too small to filter. This results in a large particle that can be
removed by settling and/or filtration.
Two common chemical coagulants are alum (aluminium sulphate) and PAC (poly
aluminium chloride) also known as liquid alum. Many other aluminium or iron salts are
commonly used in industrial water treating systems.
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Native plants have traditionally been used to improve the quality of the water in a number
of countries in Africa and Latin America. For example, the seeds of the Moringa Oleifera
are commonly used in Guatemala and Africa as coagulant aids to clarify water. Dried
beans (Vicia Fava) and peach seeds (Percica Vulgaris) also have been used in Bolivia and
other countries for this purpose.
The seeds of many plants native to the South American continent contain essential oils
and have other properties that have been exploited by traditional cultures for centuries.
Among these is the ability of certain seed extracts to flocculate particulates in water. To
prepare the seeds for use as a coagulant aid, the following procedure is commonly used:
1. Extract the seeds from the plant or fruit.
2. Dry the seeds for up to three days.
3. Grind dried seeds to a fine powder.
4. Prepare a mixture of water and ground seed material; the volume of water
depends on the type of seed material used (in the case of Moringa oleifera, add 10
cm3 of water for each seed; for peach or bean seeds, add 1 L of water to each 0.3
to 0.5 g of ground seed material).
5. Mix this solution for 5 to 10 minutes; the faster it is stirred, the less time is
required.
6. Finally, after the sediments settle, decant the treated water. Testing it for pH,
colour, and turbidity is recommended.
7. If the test results are acceptable, the treated water can be used for consumption
and other domestic purposes
The following web sites describe how plant seeds can be used as a water coagulant.
http://www.oas.org/usde/publications/Unit/oea59e/ch22.htm (Apr 05)
http://www.le.ac.uk/engineering/staff/Sutherland/moringa/water/water.htm (Apr 05)
http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/water/paper/drinkingwater/simplemethods/technology.html (Apr 05)
Filtration
Water filtration by simple household filters, such as ceramic, stone, and sand filters, will
remove a high fraction of solid matter and a large portion of micro organisms. Many of
these are commercially produced filters which are relatively costly, but some filters can
be made of locally available material.
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Rapid sand filters are inappropriate for many applications in developing countries
because of their construction cost, their complexity and their need for regular
‘backwashing’ (or rapid flow reversal) at regular intervals to clean the filter.
Pathogen Removal
In slow sand filters, organic material gets trapped at the surface, or very close to the
surface of the sand. Over a period of approximately three weeks, micro organisms
colonize the filter in this region, given the abundance of organic food and oxygen derived
from the water. These micro organisms consume bacteria and other pathogens in the
water, thus providing a very effective water treatment process. In addition to this process,
which is known as predation, other biologic processes act on the various pathogens in the
water. These processes are summarized below.
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Bacteria
Bacteria are usually between 0.2 and 5 microns long (Brock and Madigan, 1991), much
smaller than the spaces between sand grains which are normally in the range of 10 to 20
microns. Bacterial cells are also nearly the same density as water. Bacteria, however,
normally grow attached to surfaces, covering the particle surface to form a biofilm.
Bacteria by themselves are too small to be removed by straining and too light to be
removed by sedimentation. However, they are generally associated with larger particles
which are removed by straining or sedimentation, producing a marked reduction in
bacterial concentrations.
Viruses
Viruses can range in size from 0.02 to 0.2 microns. In conventional water treatment, the
virus particles are clumped together using coagulants and then settled or strained out. In
slow sand filtration, the viruses are adsorbed or become attached to the sand grains. Once
attached, they are metabolized by the cells or inactivated by antiviral chemicals produced
by the micro organisms in the filter (Ellis ’85 in Buzunis ’95).
Protozoa
In conventional water treatment, cysts are removed in a manner similar to viruses.
However, a small variation in turbidity will result in large fluctuations in cyst
concentrations. Some of the recent interest in slow sand filtration has been sparked by the
more effective removal of cysts by slow sand filters. Cysts, unlike other pathogens, are
highly resistive to common disinfectants such as chlorine, iodine, ozone and ultraviolet
radiation.
Helminths
These worms are generally of sufficient size that they can be removed through straining
or sedimentation.
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In a conventional slow sand process, the water is continuously fed to the filter. Thus, a
pump or gravity flow system with large inlet and outlet storage tanks is required.
The following is a proposed design of a small slow sand filter. However, there are not any
references of such a system being used in a household service.
A small, plastic SSF can be obtained from Blackburn and Associates in California.
http://www.slowsandfilter.com/ (Apr 05)
Biosand Filter
The major benefits of slow sand filtration are due to the microbiology of the filter. The
microbiological community must be kept alive for the filter to be effective. In a
conventional slow sand filter, oxygen is supplied to the organisms through dissolved
oxygen in the water. Consequently, they are designed to be operated continuously. Also,
because the water moves through at a slow rate, the filter beds tend to be very large.
The BioSand water filter is an adaptation of the traditional slow sand filters in such a way
that the filters can be built on a smaller scale and can be operated intermittently. These
modifications make the filter suitable for use at the household or small group level - uses
which are simply not possible with conventional slow sand filtration because of the size
requirements and the mode of operation.
A bucket of contaminated water can be poured into the top of the BioSand filter as
necessary. The water simply flows through the filter and is collected in another bucket or
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container at the base of the spout. It normally takes a few minutes for the entire bucket to
make its way through the filter because it is designed such that the flow through the filter
does not exceed 10 litres/minute/square metre. There are no valves or moving parts and
the design of the outlet system ensures that a minimum water depth of five centimetres is
maintained over the sand when the filter is not in use. The filtration processes are
identical to that of a conventional slow sand filter.
When the water is flowing through the filter, oxygen is supplied to the biologic layer at
the top of the sand by the dissolved oxygen in the water. During pause times, when the
water is not flowing, the oxygen is obtained by diffusion from the air and by slow
convective mixing of the layer of water above the sand (the supernatant). If this layer is
kept small in depth, enough oxygen is able to pass through to the micro organisms to
keep them alive and thus effective.
The main components of the BioSand filter and their uses are described below:
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Diffuser Basin
Lid
Brick chips
Container
Iron Nails
Water
Fine Sand
Pipe
Coarse Sand
Gravel
Components of a Kanchan Arsenic Filter
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The iron nails in the diffuser basin, after contact with water and air, will quickly rust.
Iron rust (ferric hydroxide) is an excellent adsorbent for arsenic. When arsenic-
contaminated water is poured into the filter, arsenic may stay in the diffuser box (i.e.
adsorbed to the surface of the rusted nails in the box), or the arsenic-loaded iron particles
can be flushed down and trapped on top of fine sand. The purpose of the brick chips is to
protect the underlying iron nails from dispersing due to the force of the incoming water.
The KAF can removal 85% to 95% arsenic in the raw water. The iron nails will lose their
capacity in 3 to 5 years if the raw water has up to 500 ug/L of arsenic. At that time,
replacement of the iron nails is necessary. However, the exact replacement period will
depend on a variety of factors such as the usage rate and water chemistry.
Other Filters
In addition to using sand as the filter media, there are other commercially made fabrics or
filaments that provide a filtering effect. The following is a description of one such filter.
The following water purification system is a simple but effective way to produce potable
water. It consists of two five gallon buckets and a sediment filter coupled to an activated
carbon filter. The crude water is first chlorinated with approximately 3 cc of commercial
bleach per 5 gallons and allowed to sit in a separate bucket for at least 45 minutes to
provide ample time for disinfection. It is then poured into the top bucket, where it is
filtered through the sediment filter and the activated carbon into the bottom bucket.
The filter units are inexpensive and offer a convenient method of producing potable
water. Testing has indicated that the life span of both the carbon and sediment cartridges
is considerable -- systems that have been in place for at least two years now are still
removing chlorine as efficiently as filters that have been newly distributed. The useful
life of the sediment filter varies widely depending on the water that is being filtered.
This is a good filtering system which also uses chlorine and it should give very good
quality water. The downside is that the filters elements have to be replaced periodically.
http://www.rollins.edu/int-programs/filter.html (Apr 05)
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Ceramic Filters
The ceramic filter is an old technology and seems to be making a comeback. A piece of
ceramic material is constructed such that there are very small pores in the clay/ceramic.
When water is allowed to flow the ceramic material, contaminants are trapped in the pore
spaces in a similar fashion to a sand filter. If properly construction and operated, a
ceramic filter can be very effective in producing good quality water.
Frequently, colloidal silver is added or applied to the ceramic surface. This silver has
properties which reduce the bacteria content in water that is in contact with the silver. In
its ionic colloid state, silver is recognized as a germicide, or in some cases as
bacteriostatic. It is believed that silver is able to disable the particular enzyme that
pathogenic bacteria and fungi use for oxygen metabolism, thus suffocating them.
Other pathogens are destroyed by the electric charge on the silver particles, causing their
internal protoplast to collapse, and still others are rendered unable to reproduce. Parasites
are also killed while in their egg stage.
Potters for Peace is an organization that produces low cost ceramic filters.
http://www.potpaz.org/pfpfilters.htm (Apr 05)
This is a very recent web site that describes a ceramic water filter that can be produced
for the poor. They are asking for support in testing and documenting the effectiveness of
ceramic filters.
http://www.purifier.com.np/ (Apr 05)
The following web site is from a commercial manufacturer in Brazil who sells various
ceramic filters. He also has distributors in South Africa and Australia. They have silver
coated candles as well.
http://www.stefani.ind.br (Apr 05)
The heart of the Katadyn Drip Filter is the ceramic element, which will filter particles as
small as 0.2 microns, removing all disease-causing bacteria and protozoa. Because the
ceramic filter can be cleaned hundreds of times, more water can be filtered at a fraction
of the price of a unit with a non-recoverable filter.
The Drip Filter is easy-to-maintain and features no moving parts. It outputs 4 litres per
hour, and the service life is 39,000 gallons. A measuring gauge indicates when the filter
needs to be replaced. Weight: 7.3 lb. Size: 10" x 18" US $189.95
https://www.travmed.com/scripts/catalog.epl?product_id=143&category_id=40&moveit=8 (Apr 05)
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Disinfection
Disinfection comes about primarily through the destruction of the organism cell walls by
oxidation. This oxidation is normally a result of the addition of chemicals such as
chlorine, bromine, iodine or ozone, or it can be induced using ultraviolet radiation.
Pathogens and other micro-organisms can ‘hide’ from disinfecting agents in organic and
inorganic residue in the water. Thus, chemical dosages needed to deactivate or kill
pathogens increase with the amount of dissolved or suspended material. Removal of
suspended materials by sedimentation and filtration greatly improve the performance of
chemical disinfection agents.
Chemical Disinfection
Chemical oxidation or disinfection is accomplished by adding a solution of chemical
oxidizing agents to the water. With sufficient contact time, chemical reactions occur
which change the contaminants in the water. Bleach (chlorine) or sodium hypochlorite
addition is the most common chemical oxidation process. It oxidizes organic matter,
manganese, iron and hydrogen sulphide.
Water disinfection with chlorine is used to kill micro-organisms (bacteria and viruses),
but does not inactivate pathogenic parasites (e.g. Giardia, Cryptosporidium and helminth
eggs). This type of treatment requires a supply of chlorine either in liquid or powder
form. Skilled application is necessary as chlorine is a hazardous and corrosive substance.
Water treated by chlorine has a taste which many users do not appreciate. This table
describes the different concentrations of chlorine that are available and how they can be
used to make a water treatment solution suitable for household use.
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Source: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/emergencies/em2002chap7.pdf
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Boiling Water
Boiling of water kills viral, parasitic and bacterial pathogens. The recommended boiling
time is one minute at sea level, adding one minute for every additional 1000 meters in
altitude. The main disadvantage of boiling water is the large amount of energy required,
making it economically and environmentally unsustainable.
Sunlight is treating the contaminated water through two synergetic mechanisms: radiation
in the spectrum of UV-A (wavelength 320-400nm) and increased water temperature. If
the water temperature rises above 50°C, the disinfection process is three times faster.
Limitations of SODIS:
• does not change the chemical water quality
• requires relatively clear water (turbidity less than 30 NTU)
• requires suitable weather conditions
• is not useful to treat large volumes of water
The following web site is an excellent source of information on the SODIS system. It has
a good reference manual, contains lots of technical information, and is easy to use and
understand.
http://www.sodis.ch/ (Apr 05)
Water Pasteurization
This process achieves the same effect as boiling at temperatures of only 70°C-75°C, but
requires a longer exposure time of approximately 10 minutes.
It is essentially a large sized SODIS system. Safe Water Systems uses the time-honoured
technique of pasteurization to disinfect water that is microbiologically contaminated.
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The Family Sol*Saver model disinfects water by combining heat pasteurization with UV
radiation. The water is typically heated for 2-3 hours. Once the temperature reaches 62ºC
(143ºF), the thermal indicator wax melts, confirming that pasteurization has occurred.
http://www.safewatersystems.com/ (Apr 05)
How it Works
• UV light disables DNA of micro-organisms in the water
• Micro-organisms cannot replicate and soon die
• No effect on taste or smell of water
• Takes only 12 seconds to treat water
This is the web site of the commercial supplier of the household UV system described
above. They also sell other types of water treating equipment.
http://www.waterhealth.com (Apr 05)
There are several commercial suppliers of UV systems. This site describes a low cost UV
Tube that may be suitable for use where there is continuous power.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/06/02_water.shtml (Apr 05)
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Technology Comparison
There are several criteria that can be used to assess and compare technologies for treating
household water supplies.
The full text of this paper can be found at this web site:
web.mit.edu/11.479/www/Lukacs.doc
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Resources
In the review in the following website, there are several tables where comparisons are
made of various household water treatment technologies that are recommended by the
author. There is no one “winner”, but the ratings will assist the user in determining which
technology might be the most applicable for the particular situation.
Within this web site, the following is a page that compares various water disinfection
methods.
http://www.safewatersystems.com/General%20Pages/Technology%20Comparison%20C
hart.htm (Apr 05)
Identifying the most accessible and effective methods for household water storage and
treatment are matters of considerable importance and are the subject of the report found
at the web site:
Managing Water in the Home: Accelerated Health Gains from Improved Water Supply.
Geneva, WHO, 2002. WHO/SDE/WSH/02.07.
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/wsh0207/en/ (Apr 05)
This web site contains a number of MIT Master of Engineering theses and other research
reports on household water treatment technologies, from technical performance
evaluation to social acceptability to marketing strategies.
http://web.mit.edu/watsan(Oct 05)
This web site has an interesting article about household based water treatment processes.
http://www.skat-foundation.org/publications/pdf/Aguasan_16.pdf (Apr 05)
The following web site is a very extensive list (6,600 listings) of commercial companies
from around the world that design and manufacture various pieces of equipment or
provide services for the following: environmental information, waste water treatment,
water supply and purification, air pollution control.
http://www.eco-web.com/ (Apr 05)
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