Gethsemane Mwizabi
24 February 2009
ACCESS to clean water and good sanitation has long been a cry of every community, urban or rural.
In an effort to enable more people access safe drinking water, simple water technology inventions have been invented to enable low-income communities, those who cannot afford chorine, access clean water in the most basic possible way.
One such invention is the bio-sand filter, which purifies dirty water so that it becomes safe to drink. The bio-sand filter is very useful both in rural and urban areas which lack safe piped water.
The filter, made out of concrete, consists of a layer of gravel with prepared sand contained within a filter body or box.
A shallow layer of water sits on top of the sand, where a bio-film is created that further filters the water of harmful microorganisms.
If you have a bio-sand filter in your home, you do not need chorine to purify your water. You do not need to boil the water either. You are safe drinking it straight from the filter tap as long as you are using a clean container or cup.
Seeds of Hope International Partnerships (SHIP) an American Christian non-governmental organisation (NGO), has introduced bio-sand filters in several communities in Ndola and Lusaka where waterborne diseases such as cholera are a serious problem.
Without doubt, unsafe drinking water spreads diseases like cholera and infant diarrhoea, which is responsible for a big number deaths in Zambia, especially during the rain season. High-density areas, like townships and unplanned settlements have often borne the brunt of waterborne diseases, due poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water.
Thus, the introduction of the biosand filters in low income areas like Chipulukusu, Mackenzie, George, Twapia and some parts of Lusaka serves a purpose in preventing some known water borne diseases.
SHIP country director, Francis Feruka said biosand filters where suited in areas that had shallow wells and built near pit latrine.
Besides, the biosand filters, the organisation has built modern wells to enable low income communities have access to safe.
After water is drawn from the well, it can be used for various domestic purposes like laundry, bathing and washing of plates and other utensils.
That which is for drinking is poured into the biosand filter.
Sick and pregnant mothers are likely to suffer from luck of proper sanitation and to pass disease on to their children. People living with HIV have increased vulnerability to diarrhoeal disease resulting from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.
After filling the filter, water will need to be collected in a clean container.
According to Tauzeni Tembo, the bio-sand filter coordinator, the filters purify water in a family's home, removing up 97 per cent of pathogens in water.
Mr Tembo together the team he spearheads, manufactures up 30 biosand filters a month. These filters are distributed to the communities freely but the recipient families have an obligation to maintain the filters.
So far over 1000 filters have been distributed to various communities in Ndola and Lusaka, where the project was introduced recently.
Several people, in communities like Chipulukusu with a population of over 75,000, live below the poverty datum line. A number of them never consider purifying water as a priority.
For example, if one comes across K2, 500, which is half a dollar, he or she would rather buy some relish and opposed to buying chorine to purify water.
Since, the biosand filter does not require chorine to purify water it serves a concrete purpose in low-income communities.
"It has been of great help to my family. I don't have to worry about the purity of my water," said Grace Kunda, of Chipulukusu. Ms Kunda is one of the beneficiaries of the filter. Her husband is a security guard at a private premise in Ndola. She acknowledges the "hand-to-mouth" life her community experiences saying most people were struggling to make earns meet.
She says issues of sanitation in her community, which has often been hit with cholera where not a priority.
"My husband gets very little money. It's hard to buy things in the home," says Ms Kunda a mother one 7-year boy.
She is grateful, however, that SHIP trained her husband on the importance of sanitation, something her family is adhering to.
Lack of safe water is at the root of many problems, in Zambia and Africa at large. People suffer and die from diarrhoea, cholera and other water related diseases.
Time spent caring for sick family members and collecting water robs people, especially women and children, of economic productivity in a country like Zambia, which is in a hurry to develop.
As HIV/AIDS, malaria and waterborne sicknesses have caused a break down in the family structure, essential skills such as hygiene education and fundamental human waste disposal are not being taught to the next generation.
Besides, distributing water filters, SHIP from time to time, conducts trainings in communities about the use of bio-sand filters. Other topics covered include basic sanitation. The training programmes have extended to schools. Wells are dug and bio-sand filters distributed.
She is a grade seven pupil at Mwabombeni Basic School and dreams of becoming a journalist so that she can inform and educated the masses on their human rights.
"I have been teaching people at home on hygiene. Diseases like cholera can be avoided," Natasha who comes from a household of six.
The hygiene and sanitation trainings have been undertaken in five villages, five schools and three urban compounds.
Operating the filter is a simple task, remove the lid, pour a bucket of water into the filter, and immediately collect the treated water in a clean container.
Normally one litre of water is filtered every minute, so it will take 20 minutes for the contents of a 20-litre bucket to pass through the filter. The filter can be used as often as needed.
Water is simply poured in and collected from the spout in clean containers. The filter holds 20 litres of water.
True, people need safe drinking water and sanitation to stay healthy and alive. Still according to statistics, half of the Zambian people do not have access to safe drinking water, and more than half basic sanitation.
The Milleniun Development Goals represent a global commitment to reduce poverty and improve lives.
Zambia ranks in the lowest 10 per cent of countries in Africa in the 2007/2008 Human Development Index rankings of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In rural areas, less than 60 per cent of the population has access to safe drinking water; only 48 per cent has access to adequate sanitation facilities.
Thus, the introduction of the bio-sand filters, an invention by Calgary University of Canada, would enable lots of people in Zambia have access to clean drinking water, which is ideal for good health.
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