Project Lead(s): Sheree Pagsuyoin
Issue
The province of Northern Samar in the Philippines has poor access to safe water.
This province lacks infrastructure for water treatment and only two of its 47 villages have safe water sources.
During floods, its evacuation centres are unable to provide residents seeking help with an adequate supply of water.
Solution
The project sought to improve access to safe water, reduce the incidence of waterborne diseases, and raise public awareness on health and hygiene by building a low-cost and modular point-of-use bio filtration system that would provide a year-round supply of safe water for residents.
The bio filter modules were targeted for use in households and in evacuation centres.
The potential for commercialization was assessed though a market feasibility study with 91 respondents in the rural areas of the Philippines.
Workshops on water and health were conducted with more than 100 participants to ensure community ownership and to achieve long-term results.
The results from the baseline water sampling indicated that the water sources for the municipality of Mulanay were not only limited but also severely contaminated with high levels of E.coli and coliform bacteria.
The practice of purchasing bottled water is common despite the high poverty rates in the municipality (80% live below poverty line, based on a market survey).
Outcome
Preliminary results in the laboratory indicated that the Moringa-based bio filter was able to inactivate E. coli in the water, as well as remove turbidity.
Further, its performance is superior to other common filter packing materials, such as sand and activated carbon.
During the field test in Mulanay in a number of households, the team consistently found high coliform levels in the drinking water sources, which the Moringa bio filter was not able to fully remove.
The team believes that this was a combination of several factors, including very high water source contamination, improper handling of the filters at the households, and possibly lower potency of the Moringa at consistently excessive microbial contamination in the presence of other contaminants (e.g., very high water hardness).
They have developed a project website that provides information on the project in lay language, a video and written promotional material. They have also published research articles in Environment Systems and Decisions, Clean Technologies and Environment Policy and two articles in Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium (SIEDS), in April and June 2015.
The team intends to apply for Phase II Transition To Scale funding to accomplish the following:
· improve the bio filter product design and robustness by exploring the use of more potent antimicrobials with low perceived environmental impacts (e.g., chitosan and nanosilver) and changing the structure of the sorbent material (ceramic-rice husk beads instead of plain rice husk ash)
· expanding the application of the bio filter in water treatment
· pilot testing of high-throughput bio filters (e.g., moringa-functionalized nanomebrane)
· exploring technology commercialization.
The team has identified the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry and the Philippine Department of Science and Technology as potential partners and fund sources.