Water Treatment/Purification

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"Food & Water"

Surface Water Treatment by Roughing Filters - A Design, Construction and Operation Manual. This publication, which is divided into two parts, presents water treatment alternatives particularly applicable to rural water supplies in developing and newly industrialized countries, and describes processes for solid matter separation. Part 1 thus focuses on general aspects of rural water treatment and allows the interested reader to get a glimpse of the different challenges posed by the water treatment technologies. In Part 2, the reader will get a comprehensive view of the pretreatment processes applied to solid matter separation and a detailed description of the application of this technology.

Ceramic Water Filter Directions, and Explanations, and Links: The Berkley Water Filter is an expensive system used extensively all over the world. You can buy one of the four ceramic water filters it uses, and create your own simple system, for under fifty dollars. These are the printed directions, with links to the sites on the web. A second web page, listed after this, gives more information

Simple Methods for the Treatment of Drinking Water The treatment processes introduced and outlined in this manual were selected according to their suitability and appropriateness for application in less developed regions. They can be classified as: aeration; sedimentation; coagulation and flocculation; filtration; and, disinfection.

Methods of Water Purification Water treatment can be defined as any procedure or method used to alter the chemical composition or natural "behavior" of a water supply. Water supplies are classified as either surface water or groundwater. The majority of public or municipal water comes from surface water such as rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. The majority of private water supplies consist of groundwater pumped from wells.

UNDERSTANDING WATER SUPPLY AND TREATMENT FOR INDIVIDUAL AND SMALL COMMUNITY SYSTEMS By Stephen A. Hubbs. The design, construction, and operation of small-scale water treatment systems for individual homes and small communities represent a significant challenge to public health because of the wide variety of water quality conditions in developing countries. Because developing countries often lack expertise for designing and operating such systems, these systems are often developed under extreme limitations of both materials and personnel. For this reason, any system considered for individual homes or small communities in developing countries must achieve the basic goals of water purification through simple design, operation, and maintenance.

Water Purification The principal methods of purifying water on a small scale are boiling, chemical
disinfection, and filtration. These methods may be used singly or in combination, but if more than filtration is needed the boiling or chemical disinfection should be done last. Each method is discussed briefly below. Following this general introduction are descriptions of a variety of water purification technologies: boiler for drinking water, chlorination of polluted water, water purification plant, and
sand filter.

Drinking Water Information and Web Resources Although the site discusses contaminants found in water from both municipal water companies and from private wells, the treatment methods discussed, are mostly Point of Use (POU) - water is treated at the point where it will be used for drinking, cooking, etc. Many private well water problems, bacteria, iron, heavy metals, pH imbalances, etc., need to be treated either at the well, or as the water enters the home.

The UV-Tube Project Making household ultraviolet disinfection of contaminated drinking water a viable option for people with limited resources. The project focuses on improving water quality for people in developing areas where other water treatment methods are not applied consistently because of their cost, inconvenience, complexity, or energy requirements. The goal of the UV-Tube Project is to design and promote the UV-Tube—an affordable, simple, and easy to use household water disinfection device that uses ultraviolet (UV-C) light to inactivate pathogens. UV-Tubes can be built from materials available in developing areas and thus can be disseminated easily through community workshops hosted by local non-governmental organizations or sold by small-scale entrepreneurs. For more details, see also: [PDF]

MIT UV-Tube Project and (very nice) UV Disinfection Basics - The UV-Tube Project or download and save the decent brochure

WCP Online- Water Conditioning & Purification Magazine, since 1959, is the source for information on water quality, filtration and disinfection, covering water treatment for home, business, C/I and small systems including well water, bottled water and water vending.

Low-tech Solar Water Purification: It works! TANZANIA - A village is piloting a new way to purify water with simple means. The method is so simple it hurts to think that it has not been put into wide use. Take a transparent plastic water bottle, fill it up with water, lay it on a black roof for several hours. If the sun is beating down good, one hour is enough. The combination of the sun's ultra violet rays and heat kills any pathogenic germs - the ones that spread much illness in Africa.

Effective, High-Performance Water Purification Systems Water is one of the most important resources for human existence, and ensuring access to cheap and clean sources is emerging as one of the great challenges of this century. While this problem is particularly acute in developing nations, even here in the United States increased revision of drinking water standards is pushing the envelope for current water treatment methods. This problem will only grow as the world’s population increases, and agriculture draws more and more of the potable water supply. Thus our systems engineering goal of cost-effective and high-performance water treatment systems meets an important social need for this country. Nanostructures can both offer substantial improvements to existing water purification paradigms, and introduce new ones, both of which CBEN exploits.

F.A.Q.s | Reverse Osmosis Technical Center | Learn the Truths About Drinking Water | Contaminants Fact Sheets These are a series of pages from "APEC" a sales site, but providing good information.

Solar Pump & Solar Still & Solar Still II & Solar Stills & Seawater Desalination & Desalination Options A series of FAO pamphlets and manuals designed for developing countries, but pretty much applicable anywhere.

Water and Sanitation Technologies: A Trainer's Manual The manual contains a total of 44 lesson plans, numbered chronologically, in recommended order of presentation. The suggested schedule is laid out in block form on page 17. There is room for flexibility in the sequencing of sessions to allow for variables such as weather conditions during outside activities. However, trainers are advised that sessions build upon one another to present a progression of information. Therefore, care must be taken if changes are made in the suggested sequence, to insure that the material is still presented in a logical progression. The lesson plans are categorized into five subject areas: Community Development, Project Management, General Construction, Environmental Sanitation, and Water Resource Development. A categorical listing of sessions can be found on page 7, under Training Subject Areas. To assist in the curriculum design of specific training programs, this table includes the number of hours for each session as well as the total number of hours for each subject area.

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