''Clean water while sun shines'' Orientation on Solar Water Disinfection

Planning Commission Naseer Gillani, Chief of Water,said that 70 per cent diseases in Pakistan are water-borne. He said that we were providing improved but not safe water to the people. He said that 80 million people were in search of safe water in the country. He said that it was necessary to propagate technologies to clean the water. He said a lot of money is required to implement the standards. SODIS is a choice which proved effective in Africa . He said as engineer that it is not a complete solution but still helps a lot in dealing with the issue. SODIS method is also a way to combat the onslaught of multinational corporations. It is a real case of out of pocket solution, he said adding that it was a panacea for those using water from ponds, taps or wells.

Mr Gillani was speaking at SDPI-SDC Orientation Seminar on "Household Water Treatments (HWTs) best practices: Solar Water Disinfection" organized by SDPI in collaboration with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) at the National Press Club here Monday. Shakeel Ramay, Head of Climate Change Study Centre, SDPI conducted the proceedings.

Dr Shaukat Farooq, Project Manager from Sheladia Associates said that ultraviolet waves disinfect water and also kill the bacteria. Referring to studies, he said that disinfection was most effective at temperatures of 40 to 46 centigrade. He said that SODIS was also effective in virus and coliform. He said that standards prevalent in Pakistan for safe drinking water were zero for faecel-coliform and three for coliform. He said that using membrane filter technology, one can easily analyse water. He said 24 hours were needed to analyse coliform or faecel-colyform. Hence, he said, that the effort of scientists was to reduce the result time. He said absence of faecel-colyform ensures absence of disease-causing bacteria. He said that field studies were mostly done in Pakistan in summer and we need studies in winter and monsoons. He stressed for data from universities and NGOs for a better opinion.

Mome Saleem, Research Associate, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, said that Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) technology was absolutely free especially in countries with high temperatures whereas other methods are good but have substantive costs.

Ms Mome said that SODIS was a simple method which does no involve money or energy. Contaminated water when filed in transparent food-grade plastic bottles (like used for soft drinks) and exposed to sun for six hours disinfect water. She said that one dollar per annum per person expenses were involved contrary to other water treatment methods which also involve costly energy. She said that we want to involve and engage media to send across the message among masses as it was very easy method and should be part of our water policies especially related to disaster-stricken areas. She said that a pilot project on SODIS was started in Faisalabad in 2002 by Swiss Federal Institution for Environmental Sciences and Technology which was later on taken up by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). She said that an estimated 62 per cent urban and 84% rural population does not treat water as they consider clear (transparent) water to be clean. Ms Mome said that our central distribution system of water was prone to contamination due to broken pipes and links. In this instance, she said, household water treatments were most effective to reduce water-borne diseases resulting in 39 per cent reduction in diarrhea, some of the common HWTs were boiling, chlorination and ceramic filtration. Microbial, chemical and turbidity are three broad categories of contamination. She said adding that SODIS helps remove microbiological contamination.

In the question hour, Mr Gillani said that a study in Switzerland indicated that in winter, the water bottles should be kept for two days under the sun. He said that boiling was better than SODIS but SODIS was cost
effective and energy free