Sustainable development

WATER PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY IN ZAMBIA

Project Work 2010/2011 Kungsholmens Gymnasium

Beatrice Hallmark EN3A

Mentor: Carl Lilja

Abstract
The provision of clean water is an important issue to solve and there is no one solution,
thankfully. Different areas have different problems and resources and no one solution can be
applied to all. In developed countries, water is often pumped from a nearby lake or from
groundwater and extensively treated in several stages in large plants to ensure safety. Water is
commonly filtrated, sometimes in several stages with chemicals added to completely
eliminate the smallest particles of pollutants and to speed up the process. Chemicals are then
filtered out again. Filtration in various forms is so far the only method to clean water, apart
from UV-purification, whether it be a traditional slow sand filter or a reverse osmosis system
or a modern, large scale filter in a water-purification plant.

In developing countries such large-scale infrastructure does not exist, thus polluted water is a
big problem. Charities are very active in combating this problem, especially in rural areas,
helping villages to install sanitation facilities and groundwater pumps or water purification
technology. The focus of this paper will be on smaller, household systems for purifying water,
looking at existing appropriate technology for purifying water in developing countries, with a
special focus on Zambia in sub-saharan Africa. Background is also provided on water, the
diseases associated with unsafe water and their effect on a population.

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Research Question
What are the current resources available and issues associated with acquiring clean drinking
water in Zambia, and what is therefore the best method for purifying drinking water in rural
and urban areas in Zambia, from the point of view of low cost, efficiency and environmental
sustainability?

Methodology
Research was conducted in books and in large part on the internet. Institutions such as the
WHO and NWASCO (National Water Supply and Sanitation Council, Zambia) were reached
on the internet and their reports and publications were used. Most of the information on
Zambia was obtained from personal contact with representatives of NWASCO and the
Zambian NGO Village Water Zambia, via email. A visit to Zambia was also made with
students and teachers from Kungsholmen’s Gymnasium in March 2011. During this visit we
had the opportunity of personally interviewing the founder of Village Water Zambia.

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Contents

WATER PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY IN ZAMBIA 1

Abstract 2
Research Question 3
Methodology 3
Introduction 5
Water 6
What is clean water? 6
Water-related disease 10
Cholera 12
Water purification 13
Filtration 13
Chemical disinfection 14
Reverse osmosis 16
Systems and developments 17
SODIS-Solar Disinfection 17
LifeStraw 18
Nano-filter 19
Ceramic water filter 19
Bio-sand filter 20
Kanchan Arsenic filter 21
Water in Zambia 22
Available water sources 22
Potential natural sources 22
Piped water in kiosks 24
The impact of inadequate water and sanitation 27
Conclusion 29
Sources 31
Tables and Figures 33
Bibliography 34
Appendix 34
Notes From the Interview with Village Water Zambia 25 March 2011 34

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Introduction
One might think that adequate water and sanitation are not much of a problem, compared to
war, natural disasters and global warming. After all, water exists in plentiful supply; one just
has to go and get it. That is true. Although less than 1% of the water on this blue planet is
fresh water suitable for human use and a lot of that is inaccessible, frozen in polar ice caps,
the water we do have is enough to support everyone. Then why does not everybody have
enough water? The water we do have is unevenly distibuted across our planet. Some people
have much more water than they need; lots of rain settling in rivers and lakes, sometimes even
harming us when there are floods. And some people do not have enough; in dry regions there
is little rainfall. The rain that does fall quickly gets absorbed back by the thirsty atmosphere
and in dry soil there are not enough plants to bind water. Dry ground is also often
impermeable, causing precious water to run off.

Climate change furthers these discrepancies. When global temperatures rise climate becomes
more extreme, increasing climatic extremes and causing more natural disasters. Polar ice caps
melt and precious fresh water is lost into the salt sea, sea levels rise and threaten to cover
many coastal towns. Water trapped in snowcaps in the mountains, for example in the
Himalayas, is normally cyclically frozen and melted and released gently into rivers for human
consumption. Higher temperatures might turn this perfectly balanced cycle dangerous,
causing flooding. In dry areas water is already scarce, deserts such as the Sahara are
expanding, rendering more areas uninhabitable. This is why we have to protect the water we
do have, to ultimately protect ourselves.

All water we have is a finite, but luckily abundant, resource. It constantly moves between
earth and atmosphere in the water cycle; accumulating in the atmosphere from evaporation
and plant transpiration and coming back down as rain, where some of it evaporates
immediately and some is kept for a time. The water we can readily use comes from two
sources; surface water in rivers, lakes and smaller reservoirs, natural or man made (dams), and
groundwater.

Contamination is a great risk to our water; especially surface water where pathogenic bacteria
and microbes flourish and dissolved dirt can make it turbid. Groundwater is often safe from
these pathogens because it has been naturally filtered through rock. Chemical contaminants
such as heavy metals from industry, synthetic fertilizers and poisonous minerals are also very
dangerous and because their particles are often very small, they can put groundwater at risk.

This is why providing clean water is a problem that must be solved, to help the whole world.
If we reduce mortality from drinking polluted water, we can lower child mortality and raise
life expectancy. It is a problem on a massive, global scale, but locally it is not difficult to
solve. Providing clean water and educating people locally is easy. This could in the long run
help avoid over-population, as poverty and mortality are reduced, because poverty is often
associated with larger families. Water-related diseases are often very easy to cure and even
easier to prevent, but knowledge of the dangers of polluted water is often lacking. Fewer
people sick and dying from water-related diseases will reduce pressure on already over-
stretched healthcare systems and means that there would be more economically active people

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helping the national economy grow. This will also help the global economy. Knowledge and
cheap, clean water are easy to provide and make a great difference very quickly in people’s
lives. When health and knowledge improve, so does economy, empowering people to make
the rest of of the difference themselves.

When considering various systems for purifying water, some basic concepts are taken into
account. Appropriate technology is the most important concept; it entails technology that is
easy to use and repair with locally available material and does not need expert handling. Local
people can with a bit of help set it up themselves and maintain it with locally available
material. A good system also needs to be cheap and reliable without endangering the
environment; either by risk of leaching chemicals into nature or through difficulties with the
disposal of used systems: non-degradable materials or chemicals.

Water
What is clean water?
When you think of cleaning water you might say: “well, just boil the water to steam and
condense it again, and it will be clean”. That is true, but such water is distilled and will never
serve as drinking water. Water used for human consumption contains some minerals and salts
that are essential for our bodies to function. It picks these up from earth, sand and rocks on its
way from its natural source as it runs through mountains and over land to where we pick it up
and drink it. These minerals include Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Potassium (K), Sodium
(Na) and Flouride (F). Calcium is important for bone development, Potassium is needed in
muscles and nervous system and Magnesium might help protect against cardiovascular
disease although most water contains very little of this. Consumption of a litre per day of
good quality mineral water may provide some of the recommended daily intake of Calcium
and Potassium.1 Drinking water should not be relied upon as a single source for a sufficient
intake of these minerals, but they affect taste and may have certain health benefits. Drinking
water is also slightly alkaline, whereas pure H2O is pH neutral, distilled water should not be
drunk regularly. Sodium and Flouride are dangerous, even lethal in high concentrations,
although such concentrations are rarely associated with drinking water. Too much Sodium can
lead to dehydration2 and too much Flouride can cause bones and teeth to become brittle; it is
also possibly linked to Down’s syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease3. Too much Flouride is
especially dangerous to children. Below are the limits for water set down by the Codex
Alimentarius commission, a group consisting of the WHO and FAO (Food and Agriculture
Organization of the UN) who set down limits for ingredients in all types of food.

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Table 1: Health-related limits for certain substances as recommended by the Codex
Alimentarius

For Bottled water sold as “Natural Mineral water”:

3.2.1 Antimony 0.005 mg/l

3.2.2 Arsenic 0.01 mg/l, calculated as total As

3.2.3 Barium 0.7 mg/l1

3.2.4 Borate 5 mg/l, calculated as B

3.2.5 Cadmium 0.003 mg/l

3.2.6 Chromium 0.05 mg/l, calculated as total Cr

3.2.7 Copper 1 mg/l

3.2.8 Cyanide 0.07 mg/l

3.2.9 Fluoride See section 6.3.2

3.2.10 Lead 0.01 mg/l

3.2.11 Manganese 0.4 mg/l

3.2.12 Mercury 0.001 mg/l

3.2.13 Nickel 0.02 mg/l

3.2.14 Nitrate 50 mg/l, calculated as nitrate

3.2.15 Nitrite 0.1 mg/l as nitrite

3.2.16 Selenium 0.01 mg/l

“If the product contains more than 1 mg/l of fluoride, the following term shall appear on the label as
part of, or in close proximity to, the name of the product or in an otherwise prominent position:
“contains fluoride”. In addition, the following sentence should be included on the label: “The
product is not suitable for infants and children under the age of seven years” where the
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product contains more than 1.5 mg/l fluorides”.

Bottled water that is sold to consumers is required to follow very stringent limits, perhaps
more so than water in nature that is still considered drinkable, but these limits are a good
yardstick. Water for drinking or sanitation purposes should contain no bacteria,
microorganisms or viruses.

Water that we commonly see as dirty and what we imagine as dirty water is turbid (cloudy).
This is due to suspended solids, sand and clay dissolved and suspended in the water and
sediment from the bottom that can get disturbed by aquatic animals such as fish,
phytoplankton and algae growth can also cause turbidity. The measure of the amount of such
suspended solids, Total Suspended Solids (TSS) can be quite difficult to determine but for
drinking water purposes, turbidity is obivously important. Turbidity is a measurement of the

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degree to which water loses its’ transparency due to
suspended solids, it is measured in units of Nephelometric Figure 1: Secchi disk
Turbidity Units (NTU). The WHO recommend that
drinking water does not have a turbidity above 5 NTU,
preferably closer to 1 NTU.5 Turbidity is measured with
a secchi disk (Figure 1), a black and white disk which
is lowered into water with a rope, the measured depth at
which it can no longer be seen gives an indication of
the NTU of the body of water.5 Turbidity is in itself not
a threat, but drinking cloudy water is not very nice.
Suspended solids also increase the risk of pollutants,
giving bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, chemicals and other The secchi disk, lowered into a body
pollutants ample opportunity of attaching to the suspended of water to determine turbidity
particles.

The roman architect and civil engineer Vitruvius (1st century B.C) used the following criteria
to determine water quality. Good quality was determined if: (1) people living nearby the
source were healthy, (2) if droplets of water left no traces on bronze vessels, (3) water left no
sand or other residue after boiling, (4) green vegetables could be cooked quickly in the water
and (5) running water was clear and aquatic plants had not taken root.6

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 Global water resources
Figure 2: Global water resources

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As one can clearly see, there is plenty of water on this planet (Figure 2), the top left hand
picture shows total renewable water resources per inhabitant; most countries are covered by
the two darker blue shades, 1700-5000 cu m per person or even more. As can also be seen in
the top right hand picture, most countries use only 10% or less of their possible renewable
resources, this includes Zambia. The centre picture shows that only a few countries are
currently suffering from physical water scarcity: these areas include the coast of northern
Africa, the Arab Peninsula, parts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico and
parts of the Middle East, northern China and eastern Australia. Asian countries around the
Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, parts of central India, South Africa and western Mexico are
expected to suffer from physical water scarcity soon if infrastructure and the way resources
are used are not improved. The bright orange areas, the broad belt across central Africa of
which Zambia is definitely a part, some of the Far East around northern India, Bangladesh and
the countries south of China and western south America, are suffering from economic water
scarcity. These are also the areas that we associate with the developing nations of the world.
Economic water scarcity means that there is limited access to water despite the fact that there
are plentiful natural resources. It probably means that most of the water is in rivers and
smaller surface reservoirs is polluted and that there is limited infrastructure in place to provide
water for human use. Plentiful water supplies in some countries can also make up for shortage
in other countries; the bottom left picture shows global water flow, which countries are
importing and exporting water and how much. According to this picture Zambia might be
importing a small amount of water, despite the fact that they have no physical water
shortages. This could be due to the lack of infrastructure needed to utilize existing resources,
leading providers to import water instead. However, it is most likely that Zambia does not
import any water, thus is put in the 0-5 category. The truth is that there is a lot still to be done
to get Zambian water to people who so badly need it; for example, groundwater could be
pumped up. In some countries over-exploitation of groundwater has led to dangerously
sinking water-tables - the Chinese city of Beijing is at risk of sinking because of a reduced
water-table below.6So far, this is not a problem in Zambia because as yet very little water is
used and what is used is eventually replenished by rain. Surface water sources can also be
used if sufficient water purification is in place.

Water-related disease
The risk of disease is very high when clean water and adequate sanitation are not available.
Contaminated water contains bacteria and viruses that cause diseases and may contain
poisonous chemicals. Suspended solids, small particles of dust or earth that make water
cloudy or brown are likely to carry such pollutants are therefore undesirable. Certain metals
and minerals i.e. Pb (Lead) and Arsenic (As) are toxic and others are dangerous in high
concentrations. Chemicals often come from the leaching of fertilizer and pesticides, for
example nitrate. Viruses and bacteria can cause diarrhoeal diseases such as Cholera, Typhoid
fever, E – coli infection, Hepatitis A, Polio and Legionellosis (Legionnaire’s disease). This is
an acute issue especially in developing countries. These diseases are perfectly treatable, but in
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these countries they may be lethal, due to the lack of sufficient medical care. A vicious circle
forms when waste is disposed of and contaminates water. One of the most common
contaminants in developing countries is bacteria from faecal matter that enters the water when
it cannot be disposed of properly.

In developing countries medical care is often limited and already highly strained. Hospitals
are small with limited resources and people often have to travel vast distances to reach them.
A lack of knowledge is also a great problem-people simply do not know of the risks of
contaminated water or may have no option for acquiring water than a from contaminated
source. The mother of a sick child may well continue giving it contaminated water in the hope
of curing, not knowing what is causing the illness or that the water is contaminated.

The risk of disease is not only from drinking contaminated water. Water-related diseases are
commonly classified depending on their relation to the use of water:

Water-borne diseases are the most widely known; caused by organisms that can survive in
water (such as E.coli and salmonella and viruses that cause Hepatitis A and Polio). These
pathogens are easily ingested when contaminated water is drunk. Due to the short life cycles
of bacteria and viruses, a small number can multiply very rapidly, spreading the disease.

Water-washed diseases such as some diahorreal diseases and skin-and eye infections such as
scabies and trachoma, can easily take hold when sufficient clean water is not available for
personal hygiene. When water is scarce, washing often takes a back seat to the need to drink.

Water-based diseases are such that parasites that spend part of their life cycle in water can be
ingested when washing, swimming or drinking the water. Examples are intestinal worms and
Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia).

Water-associated vector-borne diseases: Water provides a habitat for many insects that carry
diseases. For example mosquitoes that often breed in still water. The most well-known and
dangerous are malaria and yellow fever.7

Inadequate sanitation is inextricably linked to the problem of providing clean water. Improper
disposal of waste can easily contaminate surface water sources and will contaminate areas
where people move on a daily basis, for example where children play. Washing hands after
each possible contact with faeces is unlikely and disease is rife where precious clean water is
limited. It will be used for drinking instead of washing. According to WHO, the minimum
amount of water a person needs to survive is 5 litres per day, the limit for reliable health is
about 30 litres.6

Diarrhoeal diseases are the most common in developing countries because they are directly
related to inadequate water and sanitation facilities. They are easily cured by drinking clean
water and replacing lost body salts, often by administering a salt-solution. Eating plenty of
good food would help this as well. These are all things that we take for granted but are often
not available in developing countries.

Surface water in rivers and Dambos (see p. 21) in Zambia is often highly contaminated, but
wells are not much better if they are not sealed. Both in urban and rural areas hand-dug

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shallow wells are common. These are contaminated when waste is disposed of and people
defecate openly nearby, this quickly leaches into the water. Especially in the rainy season,
water-borne diseases are rife, when rain mixes with waste and leaches into the nearby river,
open wells flood and waste runs into the well. Water-borne diseases are practically
unavoidable in rural areas, in urban areas there are at least water-kiosks, but diseases are a
reality there as well, since people live so close together with shared, inadequate sanitation
facilities. The diseases most commonly found are Thyphoid fever, Dysentery, both diarrhoeal
diseases resulting from bacterial infections; Trachoma, an eye infection caused by bacteria;
Schistosomiasis, a parasitic infection very common in Zambia, and Cholera.

Cholera
“When the rain comes - Cholera comes.” (Pers. Comm. Village Water 2011) Cholera is the
worst diarrhoeal disease, with seven recorded pandemics in the last 200 years. In acute cases,
death can occur within 3-4 hours, although 90% of cases are mild and therefore easily
confused with other, less virulent diarrhoeal diseases.7 Acute cases cause severe, watery
diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps. Skin becomes cold and withered. Patients become
rapidly dehydrated and need rapid treatment.7

Originally it was thought to be an Indian disease, and it did originate in Asia, but with mass
movement of people between continents with air travel, motorways and international trade the
hardy bacteria spread across the world. The Cholera bacteria can survive in clean tap water
for up to 30 days and tolerate refrigeration. They can live in food, although there is little
evidence that the international food trade has contributed to spreading Cholera.

The last pandemic, which started in 1961 in Indonesia, is still going on. It ravaged Asia for a
decade and then reached Africa by 1971. It receded slightly in the later 1970’s but increased
again in the 1980’s.8 In South America, Cholera had been defeated since the 19th century but
reappeared in Peru in 1991 with over 320,000 reported cases in Peru alone, by far the hardest
hit in the Americas. Thanks to swift action from authorities with warnings issued to families
and medical help provided, there were only 3000 deaths in Peru.7 The year 1991 also saw a 9-
fold increase in Cholera cases in Africa.7 Nigeria was the hardest hit with nearly 60,000 cases,
from no reports at all in 1990, followed by Zambia and Ghana with 13,000 cases each.
Although the African and South American outbreaks both involved the same strain of the
bacteria, the El Tor, Africa reported about 10% fatalities, almost ten times that of South
America.7 The El Tor strain is less virulent than the Asian variety, but is still a dangerous
disease and remains a serious issue in developing countries.

The first modern record of Cholera in Europe occurred in the 1830’s, reaching Russia and
Germany from the Middle East. France was struck in Paris in 1832 and there were several
outbreaks in London during the 19th century. Sanitation was very bad, with sewerage disposed
of straight into rivers, streams and stormdrains. In crowded, poor areas, sewerage was often
emptied from windows straight into the street below. The situation is little better in many
slums in developing countries today. London physician John Snow first identified sewage-
contaminated water as the transmitter of Cholera in 1854. In 1883 German scientist Robert
Koch managed to identify the Cholera bacteria Vibrio Cholerae. At last, governments

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recognized the importance of clean water and sanitation. Outbreaks of Cholera were the spur
of major investment in water supply and sanitation in several European cities and Cholera
soon receded. Later, in 1991 there were only minor outbreaks in Romania and Ukraine, with
226 and 75 cases respectively and only 9 deaths in Romania.7

Water purification
Filtration
Most, if not all, water purification systems contain a filter stage. These filter out large things
from sewage water, like cotton wool and condoms that should not have been thrown down the
toilet in the first place. Filters can also remove smaller particles like silt and suspended solids;
dissolved ions and some filters catch bacteria and viruses. Filtration is the most widely used
method in developing countries. One of these filtration methods is the sand filter. As the name
implies, sand filters filter water through sand and gravel, thus mimicking nature as
groundwater percolates through the ground. There are two types of sand filters: a rapid sand
filter and a slow sand filter. Rapid sand filters filter water through sand, but speed up the
process by using chemicals as well. Rapid sand filters may use flocculation (see p. 15) with
aluminium and iron. Slow sand filters however, use no chemicals or electricity to function,
but they are often large and require large areas if used municipally. Slow sand filters consist
of a layer of fine grain sand supported on a layer of gravel, the topmost layer consisting of a
biofilm (a layer of biological activity called a schmutzdecke), bacteria fungi and a range of
aquatic larvae that have been caught there. As this builds up, micororganisms help to
metabolise organic material in the water, cleaning it. Sand filters require some time to mature,
usually 10-20 days before the filtered water is safe to drink. The water that flows through the
filter during this first time will not be clean enough for human consumption and should be
discarded or put through another filter until a sufficient schmutzdecke has formed. Slow sand
filters require a more or less continuous flow of water to avoid drying out the biolayer and to
ensure a continuous flow of nutrients to support the microorganisms in the biolayer. As the
filter is used, the schmutzdecke will grow bigger and consequently will reduce the flow rate
of the filter. When flow rate becomes too low, the filter has to be cleaned by emptying the
filter and scraping off the top layer of sand.9 Because slow sand filters are slow, the water
needs a long time to get through the sand and capacity is limited, although they are relatively
easy to manage. Below is a diagram showing a slow sand filter.

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 Figure 3: Slow Sand Filter
Figure 3 shows the working of a slow
sand filter. The tap can be put either at
the bottom or a tube can lead the
treated water up the side of the
container to the top for easier access.
The picture shows the layers of sand.
The biolayer develops above the
layers of fine sand at the top. If one
were to have a the layer of coarse sand
on top, to filter bigger particles first,
which may seem like a good idea, the
biolayer would develop on the finer
sand in the middle of the filter, in fact
making cleaning much more difficult.

Chemical disinfection
In most developed countries the standard process of filtrating water is speeded up with
chemicals, in some instances, with less turbid water, chemicals can be used alone. The most
common chemical used to disinfect water is chlorine (Cl). Chlorine is a very effective
disinfectant and also provides some residual disinfection; it remains in water to stop re-
comtamination. Chlorine is more than 3 times more effective in disinfecting water than the
equivalent concentration of bromine and 6 times more effective than iodine.10 Drawbacks of
using chlorine can be: strange taste and smell of water (usually associated with shock-
chlorination with much higher concentrations), as well as a slight risk of naturally occuring
organic compounds combining with chlorine to form carcinogenic compounds, Disinfection
By-Products (DBPs). However, the WHO states that that health risks associated with DBPs
are much smaller than risks associated with inadequate disinfection.11 Chlorine can be used by
itself, but as it is a naturally volatile gas it is usually used in compounds such as hypo-chloric
acid or chloroamines. Chloroamines may produce slightly lower levels of DBPs, but chlorine
is toxic to fish and aquatic organisms and should be kept out of natural water systems.
Chlorine is only toxic to humans after long exposure and at concentrations much greater than
those used for disinfecting drinking water.

Existing water treatment plants in Zambia use Chlorine to disinfect pipe-water. But it is still
recommended that families chlorinate their water further in case all the bacteria has not been
eliminated at the treatment plant. Even if the water is safe from the plant, bacteria can
multiply very quickly and recontaminate water if the water rests for a long time before

14
reaching the user, or if the pipes conveying it are themselves contaminated. Sometimes the
plants do not use enough chlorine and the residual effect may not be sufficient. Chlorine is a
usable method in urban or peri-urban areas and quite affordable. In Zambia, Chlorine is cheap
because of its extensive usage in household purification of drinking water. One bottle of
Chlorine in the supermarket costs 1500 K, or about 2 kr. A woman in the Kanyama slum of
Lusaka said that 10,000 K (13 kr) bought her enough Chlorine to purify all her water for 10
months.

Sweden no longer uses Chlorine to purify drinking water, because of its volatile nature and
potential health risks, as well as its toxicity to the environment. But in developing countries,
such as Zambia chlorine is a very useful tool to prevent water-borne diseases as alternative
methods do not exist. Chlorine is easy to use and very effective, but because of its toxicity one
may hope it is a temporary solution that can deal with the water-borne diseases that ravage
these countries and will eventually be replaced by more sustainable methods.

Sedimentation
A process in which contaminants that are heavier than water sink to the bottom of a basin and
the water is then led out of the basin above the sediment layer.

Flocculation
Elements such as Aluminium (Al) can be used in a process called flocculation. Flocculation is
a process where colloids come out of suspension in a solute, such as water. Aluminium, which
is positively charged attracts negatively charged bacteria and viruses, all this then sinks to the
bottom (Sedimentation) and can then be filtered out.12

Stabilization
A very popular process for larger scale use in developing countries. Highly contaminated
waste-water is left in ponds where natural biological processes remove pathogens.13 The
ponds are usually built in a series of at least three; anaerobic, facultative and aerobic. The
first, anaerobic pond is 2-5 m deep and water stays there for 1-7 days only. Here anaerobic
bacteria transform organic carbon into methane, removing up to 60 % of biological activity.
Effluent is then led to a facultative pond, 1-2.5 m deep and a detention time of 5-30 days.13 A
combination of processes happen; anaerobic bacteria digest sludge on the bottom and closer to
the surface aerobic processes work, receiving oxygen from natural diffusion, algae
photosynthesis and wind-mixing.13 The facultative pond removes up to a further 75 % of
biological activity. In both these stages, sedimentation occurs and effluent is led to the next
pond from above the bottom sludge. The last, aerobic, pond is often called the finishing,
maturation or polishing pond, because it finishes the work off. Maturation ponds can be built
in series of more ponds for better pathogen removal. Of the three ponds in the stabilization
process, the maturation pond is the one that removes actual pathogens. A shallow pond, only
0.5-1.5 m deep so that sunlight can reach to the bottom for photosynthesis. This pond can
remove a lot of nitrogen and phosphorous from water if used with algaeal photosynthesis and
fish harvesting.13

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Stabilization ponds need a lot of land area and expert personnel to build and monitor the
ponds. They are not suitable for densely populated urban areas because of the bad smell and
large land areas required, but are otherwise popular in developing countries because they use
no electricity or chemicals and can be repaired with locally available materials.13

Figure 4: Waste-water stabilization pond

Figure 4 shows the function of a waste-water stabilization pond with three stages

The three processes of sedimentation, flocculation and stabilization are not used alone but in
combination to produce water safe enough for drinking purposes. Nor should effluent direct
from a stabilizing pond be used for recreation without further treatment, for example
chlorination. These processes are used in larger scale treatment facilities, for example those
used by NWASCO to treat their piped water. (See ”Piped Water in Kiosks” p. 24)

Reverse osmosis
A reverse osmosis filter is based on the chemical process of osmosis. This means that when
two solutions are separated by a semi-permeable membrane, solvent will tend to flow through
the membrane from an area of low concentration to an area with high concentration. The
membrane will let through the solvent but not the bigger particles of the solute, forcing the
solvent to flow instead of the solute in a normal solution. In reverse osmosis, pressure is
applied to the side of the membrane with high concentration; usually 2-17 bars depending on
the concentration of the solution. This forces the solvent (water) from the area of high solute
concentration through the membrane to the area with low (or no) concentration. Eventually all

16
of the solute is caught on one side, the reverse of the original osmosis process. Reverse
osmosis is often used in desalination and to remove other dissolved ions.14

Figure 5: Reverse Osmosis

Figure 5 shows Reverse Osmosis used to purify salt water; pressure applied on the salt water
forces the water to flow the reverse direction to ordinary osmosis.

Systems and developments

SODIS-Solar Disinfection
Sunlight can be used to disinfect water, the UV
radiation and heat from the sun will kill Figure 6: SODIS bottles on a roof
bacteria and viruses. This is how it
works: A clean, clear container, usually
a plastic PET bottle because they are
often easily available, is filled with
water. This is left outside for at least 6
hours, up to several days. (Figure 6)
The water is then drinkable. How long
the water should be left depends on the
amount of sunlight available. On a clear
day, 6 hours can be enough, in cloudier
conditions, the water needs to be left for
2 days. The SODIS does not work in
rainy weather. Water that is too turbid

17
cannot be disinfected using this method, without first filtering it. A simple test to find out
whether the water is clear enough is to stand a filled bottle on a newspaper. If the smaller
headlines can be read when looking through the top of the bottle, the water is clear enough for
UV-disinfection to work. Passing this test corresponds to a turbidity of <30 NTU (Turbidity
units).15 Even this in fact exceeds the WHO recommendation for turbidity of water (See
“What is clean water?” above).

SODIS is a simple, cheap method of purifying water but it has a few drawbacks: (1)
determining how long the water needs to be left in the sun might be difficult as soon as
weather is changeable or a bit cloudy; (2) this method is not good for turbid water without
filtering; (3) water from surface water sources is often very turbid; (4) the water needs to be
drunk quite quickly to avoid recontamination, although this applies in most cases in
developing countries when water storage is difficult. Plastic water containers are otherwise
notorious for growing bacteria. Lastly, (5) water coming out of the SODIS container will be
rather warm, and drinking warm water is not always very enjoyable if resources are not
available to chill water.

LifeStraw
LifeStraw (Figure 7) is a recent invention by the Vestergaard Frandsen Group: shaped like a
straw but a few inches thick, it uses halogenated resin to kill bacteria and virus. Water is
drunk straight through the straw. In tests it could reduce levels of iodine and silver to below
toxicity. However it does not remove heavy metals such as Lead (Pb) or Flouride (F), there is
one version available that can filter Arsenic.16 The LifeStraw is an expensive filter, but may
well save lives in connection with natural disasters where quick, short-term relief is needed.

According to the patent holder: “Halogenated resin compositions are prepared without using
halogen acids by combining at least one silicone intermediate, with an optional silane, an
organic halogen-containing ingredient having functional groups selected from the group
consisting of hydroxy, amine, and carboxyl
groups, and a resin selected from the group Figure 7: Child drinking through a LifeStraw

consisting of hydroxy- and epoxy-functional

resins.”17

Larger-scale family versions of the filter are

available for home use.

18
Nano-filter
Researchers at Stanford
University have Figure 8: Nanofilter SEM 2000x
developed a
Nanofilter (Figure 8)
that kills bacteria with
an electric field. Their
filter is ordinary
cotton fabric, coated
with highly
conductive carbon
nanotubes and silver
nanowires, silver has
long been known to
have chemical
bacteria-killing
properties. The coated
cotton is layered to
about 2.5 inches thick. The pores of this filter are much larger than conventional filters,
allowing water to flow through up to 80,000 times faster. Electricity passing through the filter
kills the bacteria as they pass through the filter. Electrons pass very smoothly over the filter
thanks to the very small size of the nanoparticles, thus only a current of a few milliamperes is
needed. The silver helps prevent biofouling; buildup of bacterias caught in a filter, because
any bacteria that lag behind will likely be killed by the silver nanowires. In tests, 98% of E.
coli bacteria were killed when subjected to 20 Volts of electricity during several seconds in
the filter. The team are currently testing the filter on different bacteria and using multiple
filters to kill more bacteria. They are hoping the filter might be useful in developing countries
because it is cheap; so little silver was used for the nanowires that the cost was negligible. The
basis of cotton is easily accessible, but the nanomaterials will still be a difficult issue in
developing countries.18

Still, killing bacteria with an electric current is an interesting idea, in that it will be much
faster than conventional methods of filtering and disinfection with UV-light, if materials are
accessible and little electricity is needed.

Ceramic water filter

Potters for Peace are an organization in America that have been working actively with local
organizations in developing countries since 1998, making ceramic water filters. They work all
over the world, but mainly in Central and South America, where they started. They never sell
filters themselves, but only travel to a location to train local potters to make the filters and sell
them to communities. The PFP filter (Figure 9) is a simple bucket 11” wide, 10” deep made
of local terracotta clay, mixed with a combustible fibre, such as sawdust or old rice-husks and
coated with colloidal silver, known for it’s anti-microbial properties.19

19
It is made by pressing the clay mixture in a mold of
aluminium and then firing at 860° C, the simplest such Figure 9: Ceramic water filter press
can be a hand-operated hydraulic truck jack. This
bucket is kept in a plastic or ceramic receptacle with a
tap at the bottom and a lid. A filter rate of 1.5-2.5
litres/hour can be expected, depending on the
clay/fibre mixture and firing temperature. A bucket
can be expected to last about 40 months before having
to be replaced. A complete filter costs around 15-25
US$, a replacement filter bucket around 4-6 US$.
Field experience and clinical test results have shown
that this filter removes 99.88% of most water-borne
disease agents.20

Colloidal silver is a solution of silver cations

(negatively charged ions) in water. For use in filters,
protein, such as xanthium gum, is added to keep the highly concentrated silver cations from
separating from the water. Colloidal silver can kill bacteria by inactivating their metabolic
enzymes, or attaching to the cellular membrane, causing the cell to grow too much and die.19

The Potters for Peace filters seem an excellent method for cleaning water in developing
countries, depending, of course on whether it is suitable for a community’s resources and
needs. It not only seems to be easy to look after, cheap
and easy to make but can also provide an extra Figure 10: Bio-sand filter
economic upswing for the potters that make them.

Bio-sand filter
The Biosand filter (Figure 10) is an adaptation of the
slow sand filter, as described above. (See “Filtration”)
It has been proven to be just as effective as slow sand
filters though laboratory and field tests. It is smaller
than a traditional slow sand filter and according its
developer, more adapted to intermittent use, making it
suitable for small-scale family use. It can be contained
in concrete, plastic or another waterproof, rustproof and
non-toxic material. Typically a cylindrical shape about
0.9 m tall and 0.3 m in diameter, the sand and gravel
layered inside. Treated water collects at the base and is
propelled by its own pressure to a spout at the top of the
filter. The filter has a diffuser - a perforated plate above
the sand layer to dissipate the initial force of the water
poured into the filter and let it flow evenly through the
biolayer. A lid completes the system. 21
A bio-sand filter with sand, a lid and diffuser
plate and pipe which leads up to the top for
easy acess
20
Correct manufacturing and installation, to ensure a long and succesful life, of the biosand
filter requires:
▪ that the box that doesn’t leak
▪ screened and washed sand, (organic free, Uniformity Coefficient of 1.5 – 3.0 and an
Effective size of 0.15 – 0.30 mm - a sieve analysis is required to determine these
numbers)
▪ well washed under-drain and separating gravel
▪ diffuser plate and lid
▪ safe storage container
▪ maximum standing water level of 5 cms
▪ start-up (maturing) time of 14-21 days

Free designs are available from the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology
(CAWST).21

The capital cost of installing a bio-sandfilter is 12-30 US dollars, depending on the choice of
container, a concrete container lasts longer, though it is heavy should one want to move it.
This does not include transportation costs or education costs. Current installed bio-sandfilters
are still performing well after 10 years or more; the expected life span is 30+ years. There are
no costs for maintaining the filter, although lids and diffusers may need to be replaced, but not
often.21

Water quality tests carried out in 2005 on 107 long term bio-sand filters used in Haiti showed
a 98.5% reduction in E-coli bacteria, the indicative for pathogenic bacteria presence
recommended by the WHO. In lab tests, a 70->99% reduction in bacteria was measured.
Turbidity was reduced by 95% (to <1 NTU, below the WHO recommendation5) in lab tests
and 85% in field tests.21 Such water is not perfect, but it is a great improvement and
considerably reduces the risk of disease. Bio-sand filters are, like other all other filters, not
very good for removing dissovled chemicals or minerals. To remove those, further treatment,
such as flocculation is required.

Bio-sand filters are reasonably simple units and suitable size for a family and because of the
lid is suitable for more intermittent use without the schmutzdecke drying out. Especially the
concrete container is solid and lasts well. Water poured into it comes out drinkable quite
quickly and the quality of the water is reliable as long as the filter is cared for properly, this
requires some simple training. A constant supply of clean water can be guaranteed if a village
or community share several filters at different stages, so that if one needs cleaning and
maturing again, another filter covers for those 20 days.

Kanchan Arsenic filter

The arsenic filter works just the same as the biosand-filter, but a layer of ungalvanized nails is
added on the diffuser plate to filter out arsenic, a carcinogen. The nails filter arsenic by the
principle of iron hydroxide adsorption; arsenate ions in water are quickly attracted by the iron

21
oxide on the rusty nails and form bigger particles. These particles then dislodge and are
filtered out by the sand-filter.22 Field tests of the Kanchan Arsenic filter show 90-99%
reduction of iron in the water and 85-95% reduction of Arsenic22 apart from the above results
for an ordinary bio-sand filter. The Arsenic filter is also better than the ordinary bio-sand filter
for reducing high levels of iron; the Bio-sand filter is not suitable for removing iron.

Water in Zambia
Zambia is a landlocked country in the middle of Sub-Saharan Africa. It covers an area of
752,618 sq km, slightly larger than the US state of Texas. 9,220 sq km of these are water in
rivers; such as the Zambezi and lakes; such as Lake Kariba and Tanganyika. If one wanted to
one could travel up to 2,250 km on Zambia’s waterways.23 The most common problem with
water resources is not scarcity, there is enough water in Zambia to feed the whole of Africa,
but pollution. Zambia has potential access to 105.2 cu km of renewable water resources,
whereas only about 1.74 cu km are withdrawn every year. This is about 149 cu m per capita.
Of this, 76 % is used by agriculture for irrigation and watering livestock; this does not include
crops that grow with rainwater only. 17 % is used in the domestic sector, in homes or for
limited scale agricultural or industrial use. Only 7 % is used in industry.23 These figures
pertain only to water withdrawn from public access piped water systems, the great majority of
Zambia’s rural population have no such piped water access and nearly 30 % of urban dwellers
still have to get water from other sources, small wells or surface water.

The small portion of water withdrawal for industrial use (7 %) is stark evidence of the limited
development of Zambia’s industry, and possibly the potential of Zambia as a developing
nation, because industry plays an important part in the development of a nation. Industry
commonly uses vast water resources, especially secondary economic sector industries; those
involved in making raw materials into products, e.g computer parts or packaging of
vegetables. In the production of silicone wafers for computer chips, 2,275 gallons or about 8.6
cu m of water may be used to produce a single silicone wafer.24 Developed countries
consistently show a much greater proportion of water resources used for industry; the US use
about 46 % of the total withdrawal, Sweden 54 % and the UK use as much as 75 % of their
total withdrawal in the industrial sector.23

Available water sources

Potential natural sources
Groundwater
Groundwater is accumulated water underground, sometimes very, very old, that seeps through
the ground from rainfall above. Groundwater is either still or constantly in slow motion,
driven by gravity and continuously dispersed and filling microscopic pores in the subsoil and

22
underlying rock. Where groundwater may accumulate and at what depths is determined by the
composition of soil and bedrock. Some, called aquifers, readily conduct groundwater. Others,
aquifuges, do not.6 Groundwater can be accessed by digging wells; natural places where
groundwater emerges at the surface are called springs. Groundwater is often very clean,
because it has been naturally filtered through soil and bedrock and continually available as
long as water is not removed faster than the rate at which nature can replenish it. Very old
groundwater is called fossil water, water trapped in rock far beneath the surface that
accumulated a long time ago under different climatic and geological conditions than those we
have today. Such water is often heavily mineralized, full of dissolved minerals such as salt.
Another drawback of fossil water is that it is not so readily replenished by rain. Karst springs
are sometimes formed where rock is chemically soluble in water, for example limestone.
Soluble rock is dissolved, whilst the impermeable surrounding rock is not. This is the same
process that creates caves. Groundwater from Karst springs is used, but a disadvantage is that
they are susceptible to pollution, because groundwater has accumulated in large voids rather
than filtering through rock.6 In Zambia, the water table is very high, making it very easy to
dig wells and reach clean ground-water. Hand-dug wells are common in rural communities,
but these wells are often left uncovered, leading to contamination.

Surface water
When improved water sources are not available, most people in Zambia take their water from
local surface water sources - a river or lake, or as these are few and far between, usually the
local Dambo. (Pers. Comm. Village Water 2011) A Dambo is a shallow grass-covered
depression in the ground or a small valley that is seasonally or permamently waterlogged.
They support no bushes or trees but are rich in various specie of grass, herbs and flowering
plants and often surrounded lush grass and smaller shrubs, excellent grazing for wildlife. In
higher land, amongst hills, Dambos are sometimes the sources of streams or rivers-
groundwater springs.25 All surface water is easily contaminated by animal and human waste
and is not suitable drinking water sources, but people often have no choice.

Other surface water sources are Pans, although these are strictly seasonal and dry up soon
after the end of the rainy season. Pans are also shallow pools, but usually do not support rich
vegetation.25

Flood-plains are low-lying grasslands on the edges of rivers, streams and lakes, seasonally
inundated with floods. They contain no trees or bushes, only a carpet of grass that can tolerate
being submerged for part of the year. The largest areas of floodplains in Zambia are beside the
Kafue river in central Zambia and around the Zambezi river in south-western Zambia.25

23
Piped water in kiosks
In the slums of urban areas, shallow, uncovered wells, such as the one in Figure 11 are
common and people still use them for water, despite that they have long since been
contaminated by waste, but piped water does exist in urban areas.

Some houses have piped Figure 11: Shallow well in the Kanyama slum compound of
water provided, but in the Lusaka
poorest areas in urban settlements;
slums, water kiosks (Figure 12)
provide the only source of safe
water. NWASCO (National Water
Supply and Sanitation Council) in
Zambia is the regulatory body that
oversees the provision of water
through piped systems. According to
their latest figures, about 74 % of
Zambia’s urban and peri-urban
population are covered by piped
water systems, including
population of the country as a
whole, this figure drops to about 64
26
%. Piped water systems are
provided through 11 CUs
(Commercial Utilities) and some
private providers. These private
providers are different companies that provide water and sanitation facilities as fringe benefits
to their employees. NWASCO do not provide water on their own, they oversee and regulate
the operation of these water providers, and all water providers must obtain a license from
NWASCO. Commercial utilities are public institutions that provide water and sanitation
facilities to people in their catchment area. Water is much greater than sanitation provision.
For example: Lusaka WSC (Water and Sanitation Commission) are estimated to cover about
70% of of the population of Lusaka province whereas sanitation coverage is only 19%.26
Water kiosks are run by private vendors appointed and regulated by NWASCO, through the
WSCs, where people can fetch water and pay a tariff rate to fill a container of 20 litres. These
kiosks are open between 4 am and 7 pm every day, but queues are commonly very long and
you are only allowed to fill one container at a time. You are lucky if you have time to fetch all
the water you need.

24
 Figure 12: Water kiosk in the Kanyama slum compound of Lusaka

The tariffs for all water utilities in Zambia are set according to categories of housing;
classified as low-cost, medium-cost or high-cost.27 How much you pay depends on what
category you belong to. The rates in the different WSCs depend on the running costs of the
individual WSCs, but in Lusaka WSC a 20 litre container of water costs around 50 K (around
6 Swedish öre). Some kiosks also run as community led schemes, sometimes charging as
much as 100-150 K for a 20-litre container. (Pers. Comm: Hara Kasenga 2011) This may
seem very cheap, but the best way of evaluating these figures is by looking at the estimated
proportion of the total household income that is spent on water. Below is a table compiled by
the International Poverty Centre, it estimates the share of household income that Extremely
poor and Moderately poor households spend on water. Figures are for urban centres in the
provinces below.

Table 2: Monthly Share of Mean Household Income spent on Low-cost water 2002-
2003(%)27

Lusaka Mulonga Western Southern Nkana Chipata

Extremely poor 7.4 7.9 9.0 3.5 5.3 14.0

Moderately poor 5.2 5.6 6.3 2.5 3.7 9.9

Tariffs are considered unaffordable if more than about 3% of household income is spent on
water. According to these figures (Table 2), the low-cost water tariffs are unaffordable in all

25
provinces except Southern, the most expensive is found in Chipata. Water from commercial
utilities is considered unaffordable for 60% of Zambia’s population since recent estimates
suggest that 68% of Zambia’s population live in poverty.27

Despite these figures, it has been difficult for established Commercial Utilities to recover their
costs from tariffs collected, according to Dagdeviren and Robertson. This means that costs to
run these Commercial Utilities are not covered by revenue. The main reason for this is the
high level of Unaccounted for Water (UFW, Figure 13), water that is provided but not
charged for. In 2008 the average UFW was 45%.26 This is due to a lack of maintenance and
poor infrastructure. Causes include leaks appearing in badly maintained pipes, vandalism or
unauthorized connections to the pipe system. A lack of metering (measuring the amount of
water provided) can also be a factor. According to NWASCO (2008), the estimated revenue
loss due to UFW was 201 billion K in 2007/8.26 This is about 272 million Swedish Kronor or
43 million US dollars. This difficulty in recovering revenue greatly lowers incentive to
expand water services in the poorest slums of Zambia and there is little capacity for
investment in improvement or expansion without aid from government subsidies or donor aid.
According to Dagdeviren and Robertson, the Zambian government only invested between 2-
12% of their planned capital spending on water supply and sanitation between 1998-2002.27

Figure 13: UFW; a rusty, leaking water container

The quality of water supplied is monitored by NWASCO and all water provided is first
treated to remove pathogens, utilizing methods such as sedimentation, stabilization, filtaration
and chlorination. (Pers. Comm: Hara Kasenga 2011) (See “water purification” above)

In their investigation into the commercialisation of the water supply in Zambia, Dagdeviren
and Robertson (2008) found that overall, the system of commercialisation does suffer from
some inherent design flaws, not uncommon when commercializing an essential public service

26
in low-income countries where poverty is common and other social welfare systems are
absent. Goals of economic efficiency on the one hand and social policy on the other often
conflict and significant levels of investment are needed to try to reconcile these two aims and
fund a reliable system of water supply and sanitation, especially to expand networks to the
poorest people that can otherwise be excluded due to the low financial incentive.27 Many of
the existing systems were put in place many years ago but have not been improved or
extended to accomondate an exploding population in urban areas. A system that may have
been installed to serve 1000 households may now have to cater for 5000.

A long-term sustainable solution is beyond the world of commercialized WSS systems,

utilities and regulators, because it involves concerted involvement from various government
departments, including housing, urban planning, infrastructure development etc. That is in the
future, beyond MDGs that measure access to safe water and sanitation, but not the quality of
that access.

Public water kiosks can provide a short-term solution, in that they provide much needed
drinkable water, but as seen above, they can be comparatively expensive. Most people can
afford 50 K for a container of water, but, according to a teacher at Chinika high school in
Lusaka, there are those who still cannot afford it, usually if they are in debt. The water kiosks
serve a purpose, but they are not ideal as service may be unreliable, for example if electricity
fails and an electric pump cannot function, and they do not cover everybody-only 74% of the
urban population and 64% nationwide. (Pers. Comm: Hara Kasenga 2011)

The impact of inadequate water and sanitation

A 2006 United Nations report states that “there is enough water for everyone.” the problem
often lies in mismanagement, sometimes corruption and a lack of investment in human
capacity and physical infrastructure. Developed countries have a piped water system that
serves taps in every household. In developing countries this is often inadequate or non-
existent. Here people must turn to natural sources of water, lakes, streams etc that are not
always clean. WHO stated in March 2010 that 5.9 billion people worldwide are using water
from safer, improved sources, that is 87% of the world’s population. 84% of the population in
developing countries are using safer water. Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania are lagging
behind; 60% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa and 50% in Oceania are using safer water. 2.6
billion people still do not have improved sanitation. In most of Africa, less than 50% of the
population have improved sanitation, in Oceania this figure is slightly higher, 50-75%.28 This
still leaves many millions of people world-wide without clean water and adequate sanitation
due to lack of infrastructure and lack of knowledge, especially amongst the population.

According to the CIA World Factbook, the most common infectous diseases are in fact water-
related. They are water-borne diarrhoeal diseases such as Cholera (See “Water related
diseases”) and Hepatitis A, which affects the liver. Schistosomiasis is also common, a water-
based parasitic disease. The risk of infection is deemed very high.23

27
Zambia’s Human Development Index (HDI) is 0.3809, compared to 0.8989 in the US, 0.8941
in Sweden and 0.8472 in the UK (Gapminder). Out of every 1000 births in Zambia, 20
children die due to diarrhoeal diseases before the age of 5.29

According to a WHO report from 2004, in World Bank regions; about 922,000 deaths could
be attributed to unsafe water or sanitation in sub-saharan Africa. In high-income countries, the
same figure was 7000.30

Below (Table 3) is a table illustrating the impact of unsafe water and sanitation, with
comparisons to other well known health risks.

Table 3: DALYs and PAF for mortality attributed to selected risk factors,
comparison of high-income countries and Sub-Saharan Africa

Scale: DALYs: PAF for

mortality:

Cause: Unsafe Tobacco Alcohol Unsafe Tobacco Alcohol

water, use use water, use use
sanitation sanitation

SSA 29,600,000 1,903,000 7,704,000 7.9% 1.2% 2.3%

High- 226,000 13,051,000 8,050,000 0.1% 18.1% 1.6%

income
countries

DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years) is the count of how many potential, total years of
life are lost in the population of a region due to different causes.31 PAF (Population
Attributable Fractions) is the contribution by a certain risk factor to disease and death in a
population or the proportional reduction in disease or death if exposure to a risk factor were
reduced to a ideal scenario, e.g if everybody had safe water and sanitation or nobody used
tobacco.30

Unsafe water and sanitation affects children and older people the most, because their immune
systems are weak. Especially children can put themselves at risk in the household because
they do not know what water is safe. A thirsty child will drink any water in the house. It does
not know which water is safe to drink and what is being used for washing dishes or personal
hygiene. Of the 29,600,000 DALYs attributed to unsafe water and sanitation in sub-saharan
Africa (Table 3), 24,600,000 belonged to a group under the age of 4. Most years are lost if a
child dies, and children are most at risk. 7.9% PAF is a large portion of all deaths, in the same
report by the WHO, only two other factors contributed to more deaths: Unsafe sex at 15.2%
and Underweight (only in children below the age of 4), 8.8%.

28
As is quite clear from the figures above, the impact that unsafe water and sanitation has on the
health of a population is great. It is one of the easier problems to remedy and a major
difference can be seen very soon after improvements have been made in a community. Water-
borne diseases are almost eliminated and the burden on local healthcare due to such diseases
is greatly reduced. (Pers. Comm: Village Water 2011)

Conclusion
There is no one single, perfect solution to providing clean water. Even in Zambia several
potential systems may be used. Because the water table is quite high in Zambia, many local
charities opt to dig wells and install pumps and utilize ground water. Ground water is still safe
in Zambia and wells can provide a lot of water quickly when cared for properly and not over-
used. The risk of ground water drying out is so far extremely slim in Zambia.

Installing a water purifier or a well always requires outside help. This comes from charities
that help to install the system and, most importantly, educate people on the importance of
clean water and sanitation and teach them how to maintain their filter or well in working
order.

For purifying water on a smaller scale setting in Zambia a filter such as the bio-sand filter or
ceramic pot filter is suitable, they are cheap and simple and able to clean out the elements that
are a problem in Zambia - bacteria and viruses. Traditional slow sand filters are often used on
a much larger scale, in water treatment plants as they are or with help from chemicals. SODIS
disinfection cannot be used without a filter, as surface water is often turbid and disinfection
time depends a lot on the weather and is difficult because of that. The LifeStraw is rather
expensive and cannot be acquired by local people on their own, it is handed out by charities
and the same problem still remains when the LifeStraw reaches its use-by date. The nano-
filter needs a lot of further research, but it sounds as if it might be expensive and difficult to
mend or find replacement parts Moreover, electricity is often a problem in Zambia.
Stabilization and chlorination are used by NWASCO now. In urban and peri-urban areas,
Chlorine is a cheap, accessible method for ensuring safe drinking water. It is a relatively
short-term solution as it is not environmentally sustainable and one may hope that safer
chemicals will soon be available also in developing countries. Chlorine is not an option in
rural areas, these small communities are self-sustaining dependent on agriculture, far away
from any supermarket that sells Chlorine. In these communities, sand-filters or wells are so
far the only option for safe water.

The ceramic pot filter and the bio-sandfilter do not differ noticeably in cost. They both cost
around 20 dollars to install, the bio-sand filter can cost a little more to install, but it does not
require regular replacement like the pot in the ceramic pot filter. The ceramic pot is also
breakable and replacement requires that the local potters that have been trained remain
available and also that the additional colloidal silver and xanthium gum are available. The
bio-sandfilter is sturdy and has been proven to last for a long time without replacement. It is
very easy to maintain and clean, replacement parts are locally available if need be. Neither

29
pose threats to the environment as the do not contain any chemicals that might leach (in the
ceramic filter, the colloidal silver is firmly attached to the filter with xanthium gum). Used
filters can be disposed of, plastic parts and concrete parts however cannot be dumped
anywhere. The small amount of colloidal silver in the ceramic filter is unlikely to pose any
risks to the environment. Sand from an old sandfilter can be disposed anywhere, it is a natural
product.

These filters are also very good because the education provided by charities that help in
installing them makes a great difference and empowers people to change their lives by
themselves. When a community builds their own purifier or well and maintains it collectively
as well as improving general sanitation habits, it is the most sustainable. The installation of a
bio-sand filter does this, it is the cheapest and easiest to maintain and has a long life span,
giving it the edge on the ceramic pot filter. The bio-sand filter can be built by any charity, as
drawings are freely available from CAWST, whereas the ceramic pot filter is so far tied to the
Potters for Peace charity.

30
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16. Greenemeier L (2008), Water filtration system in a straw Scientific American 25
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Personal Communications
 Village Water Zambia, (Contact address:) Village Water,
 Unit 20a Business
Development Centre,
 Stafford Park 4
 Telford
 Shropshire
 TF3 3BA
 United
Kingdom, 0044 (0)1952 850441, ellie@villagewater.org
 Hara Kasenga, NWASCO, Plot 164 Mulombwa Close Off Bwinjimfumu
Road,
 Fairview,
 Lusaka
 Zambia
 10101, 00260 211 226941/2,
khara@nwasco.org.zm

32
Tables and Figures
 Table 1: Standards for Natural Mineral Waters, Codex Alimentarius;
http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/standard_list.do?lang=en retrieved 28/10-2010
 Table 2: Monthly Share of Mean Household Income spent on Low-cost water,
Dagdeviren H & S A Robertson Reforming without resourcing: The case of the urban
water supply in Zambia International Poverty Centre, Policy research brief (no 8, sep
2008)
 Figure 1: Sacchi disk, Turbidity Lenntech water treatment and purification Holdings
B.V http://www.lenntech.com/turbidity.htm retrieved 3/3-2011
 Figure 2: Water goes global, New Scientist, Environment (18 dec 2008)
http://environment.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2670/26700101.jpg
retrieved 28/10-2010
 Figure 3: Slow Sand Filter, Astatke A, Bunning S and F Andersson (1986) Building
ponds with animal power in the Ethiopian highlands Appendix VI, International
Livestock Centre for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
http://www.ilri.org/InfoServ/Webpub/fulldocs/A_manual/Appendix.htm retrieved 3/3-
2011
 Figure 4: Waste-water stabilization ponds Akvopedia Akvo.org
http://www.akvo.org/wiki/index.php/Portal:Sanitation retrieved 6/3-2011
 Figure 5: Reverse Osmosis, ORACLE ThinkQuest
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0131200/Osmosis.htm retrieved 11/11-2010
 Figure 6: SODIS bottles on a roof, SODIS http://www.sodis.ch/index_EN retrieved
3/3-2011
 Figure 7: LifeStraw Greenemeier L (2008), Water filtration system in a straw
Scientific American 25 February 2008, Nature America Inc, New York NY
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=water-filtration-system retrieved
15/10-2010
 Figure 8: Nanofilter 2000x, Bergeron. L, Filter uses electrified nanostructures to kill
bacteria Stanford Report 31 August 2010
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/nano-pure-water-083110.html retrieved
15/10-2010
 Figure 9: Ceramic water filter, filters Potters For Peace
http://s189535770.onlinehome.us/pottersforpeace/?page_id=9 retrieved 3/3-2011
 Figure 10: Bio-sand filter, Concrete Bio-sand filter Akvopedia Akvo.org
http://www.akvo.org/wiki/index.php/Concrete_Biosand_Filter retrieved 11/11-2010
 Figure 11: Shallow well in the Kanyama slum compound of Lusaka, Private picture,
Zambia March 2011
 Figure 12:Water kiosk in the Kanyama slum of Lusaka, Private photograph, Zambia
March 2011
 Figure 13: UFW; a rusty, leaking water container, Private photograph, Zambia March
2011

33
Bibliography
 Stock R (2004) Africa south of the Sahara-A geographical interpretation”, Second
Edition, Guilford Press, New York NY

Appendix
Notes From the Interview with Village Water Zambia 25
March 2011
Village Water Zambia (VW) is an NGO that works in the water and sanitation sector. They
are a Zambia-registered charity since 2007 with its head office in Lusaka and two field offices
in Mongu and Kaoma in the Western Province. The fund-raising comes from the headquarters
in the UK where they are also a registered charity under the name of Village Water UK. VW
install wells to access groundwater or rehabilitate existing ones, as well as install pit latrines.
In terms of the number of people covered, VW could be called one of the biggest NGOs
currently active within the water sector in Zambia, of which there are less than 20. Most of
their funding comes from the UK and the Netherlands and help from US is a possibility. Other
funding partners include UNICEF, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the
Danish and Irish governments. The Zambian government often loan money to support the
building of infrastructure, but often only half of the loaned money goes to what it was meant
for. Generally very little aid money is invested in the water and sanitation sector, the Swedish
government for example, do not provide aid in this sector at all.

VW helps around 90 villages per year, each with a minimum of 250 inhabitants. A descision
by the government dictates that every water point installed must serve at least 250 people-so
one may ask what happens to the villages with less than 250 inhabitants? Villages approach
them themselves and ask for help and with some help from the local government, VW can
decide which villages are in the greatest need and would benefit the most from their help. The
idea is to get people together, get a community to cooperate over maintaining a new well.
They educate people about basic sanitation and its importance for improved health and thus
fuel a desire in people to actively help their situation. They help the villagers analyse their
situation and the villagers can then draw on local knowledge and resources to construct their
own sanitation facilities from locally available materials. The villagers, with the help of VW,
set up their sanitation facilities better, i.e hand washing facilities, bath shelters, refuse pits,
dish stands and pestle and mortar stands to avoid contamination. The villagers are also
supported in digging their own pit latrine and constructing huts to cover them. So far, VW
have been digging wells by hand, since the watertable in the Western province is quite high
and costs are much lower, but this is rather slow work and they are looking into a new
method, mechanical methods called jetting and rota-sludging. Hopefully these will be in use
within the year, they will then be able to dig 2-3 wells per day, compared to one hand-dug.

The new water point also has to be managed after VW have left; VW train two people from
each village, a man and a woman, who can look after the well and mend the pump if it breaks.

34
Since these projects are 100% funded the vllagers do not have to pay anything themselves,
VW also leave some money behind which can be used to buy replacement parts for the pump.

VW help rural schools as well and they have applied for money from UNICEF to support this.
These schools usually have wells, but they are not covered and easily susceptible to
contamination by anything from bacteria to a dead dog. In these cases VW can merely
disinfect the well, seal it and it will be safe to use. They also build pit-latrines, as these
schools often lack these facilities. VW are currently in discussions with Oxfam, a large
charity organization in Britain, to extend their work to urban areas in Lusaka.

One of the difficulties faced by NGOs is coordination; VW have all their installed waterpoints
and latrines as dots on a map, but the best thing would be if all projects of all NGOs working
in that area could be on the map, and will al those dots still be there in 2030? (MDG: 100%
access to improved sanitation by 2030). There is an agreement with the government – each
NGO has a limited number of wells they are allowed to install per district. What happens is
that one village will be helped, another will not. With NGOs cooperating - with all their dots
on the same map they will be able to make sure all villages are helped.

On the question on the quality of the groundwater: That depends on where you are in Zambia,
in Kanyama, Lusaka for example, you have kiosks that provide water but there is no such
thing in Western Province. Bacteria and viruses are not much of a risk in the groundwater of
Western Province, unless it has been contaminated by a nearby toilet or if bacteria and viruses
contaminate an open well. Pit latrines should be built downstream from the well to avoid the
risk of contamination. Too high concentrations of minerals, for example copper, can be a
problem, but there are few filters that can adequately deal with mineral concentrations. VW
test each new well, and if they find that the mineral concentration of the water is too high,
they simply destroy that well and build another one elsewhere in the vicinity. In one case that
had to do this shift four times.

Pit latrines: In urban areas, the latrines are often emptied regularly with a sewerage truck, but
there is still a risk of overflowing in the rainy season. In rural areas pit latrines are not
emptied, it is common that the latrines of rural schools overflow during the rainy season. VW
simply recommend that villagers cover a full latrine and build a new one, plant a tree over the
old one or something. Dry toilets are recommended – where faeces and urine are separated,
urine can then be diluted and used as fertilizer because of it nitrate content. VW hope to be
able to introduce a new pit latrine, especially in schools where overflowing latrines are
commonplace. The Ecosan latrine is built above ground, with two pits. It is a dry toilet, thus
when one pit is full, the other is used. The full pit decomposes naturally, leaving a small
amount that can easily be dug out and used as fertilizer for a garden.

35