• HIV/AIDS and Clean Drinking Water
• The Simple Solution for $5/Person
• Clean Water Technology
• Concrete Biosand Filter
• Shallow Water Well Construction
• Well Hand Pump Repair
The Worldwide Water Crisis
In this day and age, the statistics are seemingly unbelievable – 1.1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and nearly 2 million people die each year due to waterborne-related disease (90% of which are children under the age of 5). As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a worldwide water crisis among the world’s poorest people. Further, the UN has declared 2005–2015 Water for Life: The International Decade for Action.
“Every week, diarrhoeal disease due to easily preventable causes claims the lives of 30,000 people, most of them young children. This is a silent humanitarian crisis that thwarts progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs). The consequences of our collective failure to tackle this problem are the dimmed prospects for the billions of people locked in a cycle of poverty and disease… I urge everyone to look at World Water Day as another occasion to renew their commitment to providing clean, safe water to all who need it."
– Statement of former WHO Director-General, Dr. LEE Jong-Wook, to mark the International Decade for Action: Water for Life 2005-2015, 3/21/2005
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HIV/AIDS and Clean Drinking Water
The lack of clean drinking water is at the root of the African HIV/AIDS pandemic. Children and adults living with HIV/AIDS require clean drinking water to survive. Waterborne illness considered normally mild in healthy adults becomes an incurable death sentence for those affected by HIV/AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, millions of people lack access to the basic necessity of clean drinking water. In this same region, some 25 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. The result – over 2 million children and adults die of HIV/AIDS annually in sub-Saharan Africa alone.
Integral to this horrible cycle, sickness and disease resulting from the consumption of contaminated drinking water destroy the strength and development of African families and communities. This leads to extreme poverty, lack of education, tremendous inequities, and greater illnesses, creating conditions ripe for the continued spread of HIV/AIDS. Caught in this downward spiral, it becomes difficult, and most cases impossible, for individuals to progress out of their terrible plight.
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The Power of Prevention
One of our Thirst Relief partners, who is an emergency/trauma center doctor turned medical missionary, recently attended a tropical medicine seminar. He was astonished to learn the following – over one hundred medical practitioners agreed that three ongoing medical clinics a day, in any given tropical region of the world, wouldn’t have as much impact on addressing a community’s health as simply addressing their need for clean drinking water.
By providing a source of clean, safe drinking water to those in need, we are preventing waterborne disease and circumventing the need to treat it. For those without access to doctors and antibiotics, this prevention is literally life saving.
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The Simple Solution for $5/Person
In most third-world applications, the solution to the clean drinking water need is found in the Concrete Biosand Filter. The Biosand filter has the ability to produce safe, clean drinking water from both contaminated surface water and ground water sources alike. As a result, this simple yet effective technology provides a long-term, sustainable, and economical drinking water solution for those in poverty stricken areas around the world. Where non-contaminated ground water sources are a viable option, Shallow Water Wells equipped with hand pumps provide an equally economical and sustainable clean water supply to entire villages. In addition, Hand Pump Repair of existing wells with broken hand pumps serves to multiply the production of clean water throughout a region.
Thirst Relief’s cost to build, deliver, and install a concrete Biosand water filter is $50-70, which in turn benefits on average 10 people in need. Our cost to repair an existing broken well hand pump is $300-$800, which in turn benefits 500 to 1000 people in need. Our cost to drill a new well is $2,000-$4,000, which in turn benefits 500 to 1000 people in need. For less than $5 per person, we can provide the basic necessity of clean drinking water to those in need around the world.
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Clean Water Technology
The vast majority of those in need of clean drinking water are located in rural villages in developing countries, without access to electricity or an improved water source. In most third-world applications, the solution to the clean drinking water need is found in the Biosand filter designed for intermittent household use. The Biosand filter has the ability to produce safe, clean drinking water from both contaminated surface water and ground water sources alike. Where non-contaminated ground water sources are a viable option, bore hole wells equipped with hand pumps provide an equally economical and sustainable clean water supply to entire villages. In addition, hand pump repair and refurbishment of existing broken wells serves to multiply the production of clean water throughout a region.
Concrete Biosand Filter
The concrete Biosand filter is an innovative version of the slow sand filter specifically designed for intermittent and/or household use. These filters are produced locally at the point of need using locally available materials and labor. The installed cost of each filter is $50-$70 depending upon location, with enough daily output of clean drinking water to meet the needs of 10-20 people.
The concrete Biosand filter is comprised of a concrete container (the approximate size of an office water cooler) with an inset plastic pipe, and filled with layers of sand and gravel. Contaminated water is poured into the top of the filter, where a diffuser plate distributes the water over the sand bed. The water travels through the sand bed, passes through multiple layers of gravel, and collects in the plastic pipe at the base of the filter. The clean water then exits the plastic piping for the user to collect.
The removal of waterborne pathogens and contaminants occurs in the Biosand filter due to a combination of biological degradation and mechanical filtration processes. The organic material present in the contaminated water is trapped at the surface of the sand bed, forming a biological layer, or "schmutzdecke", to actively remove the pathogens and contaminants. The water produced by the Biosand filter process is odorless, tasteless, clear in color, and safe for human consumption.
Studies have shown the Biosand filter effectively removes more than 90% of bacteria and 100% of parasites. Although the filter does remove more than 90% of bacteria, which means the level is often below the infectious dose, it is recommended to use disinfection (UV, boiling, or chlorine) after filtering the water to eliminate all bacteria and virus matter.
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Water Well Construction
Bore hole wells equipped with hand pumps or submerged electric pumps provide a sustainable clean water supply where ground water sources are a viable option. These wells are drilled using portable drill rigs to depths up to 250 feet, or commercial drill rigs to depths up to 800 feet. The cost of each well ranges between $1,500 and $5,000, depending on location, and provides clean drinking water for 500 to 3,000 people.
Well Hand Pump Repair
Millions of rural peoples rely on community wells fitted with hand pumps for their family's drinking water. In many places, wells have been constructed without local people having the knowledge or resources to repair them. Often, a broken hand pump will remain out of service for years due to something as simple as a washer needing replaced. The well hand pump repairs funded by Thirst Relief International are implemented through a program that encourages hands-on training on several types of hand pumps. The cost to repair a broken well hand pump ranges between $300-$800, and provides clean drinking water for 500 to 1,000 people.
