Thursday, February 23, 2012

Promotion of Biosand filter: Result from the Analysis Report


With the support of USAID, EAWAG and WHO, an assessment on the effectiveness of school point of use (PoU) options in Dang and Kapilvastu districts was conducted. The specific focus was to evaluate technical performance and acceptance of the installed PoU options, their sustainability and possible markets for replication at other project areas.

Throughout the course of the monitoring study in 122 schools showed that 90% of large Colloidal Silver Filter (CSF), 69% of clay CSF, 92% of plastic CSF, 60% of large BSF and 38% of SODIS were found to be in regular use. Water quality analysis results within these options showed that the average E. Coli removal for large CSF was 83%, clay CSF was 86%, plastic CSF was 100% and for large biosand filter (BSF) the average removal was found to be 50%.

The study showed that the breakage of filter spout, disc and filter candles; unavailability of local market for spare parts and leakage of the filters were main reasons behind the discontinuity of CSF. The most concerning fact was 40% of large CS filters did not remove any coliforms. On the other hand, the discontinuity of BSF at most of the schools was due to the difficulty on filling the water, unavailability of iron nails and leakages.

Comparing the two filters, it was found that most of the CSF users found there were no differences in taste, smell, look and temperature of treated water compared to raw water. However, in case of BSF all users expressed that the filtered water is better than raw water (Table 1). Hence BSF will be promoted at Surkhet under Su-SWASTHA project with prioritization given to local demand, entrepreneurship development, marketing, outreach and local individual contribution.

Table 1:  Comparison between CSF and BSF at schools of Dang and Kapilvastu.
















Source: ENPHO, 2011[1]


[1] ENPHO (2011) Final Assessment Report on the Effectiveness of Point of Use (PoU) Options in Dang and Kapilvastu Districts in Nepal