Household Water Treatment (HWTs) Best Practices: Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS)

SODIS Household Water Treatment Method would be included in the educational curricula all over Pakistan ” said Mr. Marri, Member Infrastructure Planning Commission. He was talking at a seminar held at the Planning Commission here on Wednesday. While highly appreciating the initiative, Mr. Marri gave in his pledge to take the information in schools/colleges at the national level and stressed on having cost-effective technologies that would lead to better drinking water standards with minimal cost. He also mentioned that is would be more effective after 15th of July after the devolution of power to provinces.

Speakers were present at SDPI-SDC Orientation Seminar on "Household Water Treatments (HWTs) best practices: Solar Water Disinfection", a project of SDPI in collaboration with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Naseer Gillani, Chief Water, Planning Commission conducted the proceedings, Shakeel Ramay, Head of Climate Change Study Centre and Mome Saleem, Project Head SODIS represented SDPI, Dr. Shaukat Farooq of SHELADIA Associates, Ahmed Sohail, Director, National Renewable energy Lab, Shahid Mehmood, Director, Community Action Program were also among the speakers.

Mr. Shahid Mehmood shared his experience of working with various schools and on other community levels, and their positive response to this method. He also shared about the deteriorated condition of the water distributing tools such as pipes etc. He stressed on the need to shift the existing paradigm so that people can adapt to better options for their livelihood. He also shared an interesting video regarding the media campaign been initiated on SODIS on the local level.


Dr Shaukat Farooq, 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 is also effective in removing viruses and coliform. He said that standards prevalent in Pakistan for safe drinking water are zero for faecel-coliform and three for coliform. He said absence of faecel-coliform ensures absence of disease-causing bacteria. He stressed for further data from universities and NGOs in terms of further research and probing the possibilities in cloudy weathers. He said that one can also analyse water through using membrane filter technology.

Mome Saleem, Research Associate, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, said that Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) technology is absolutely free especially in countries with high temperatures whereas other methods are good but have substantive costs. She said that SODIS is a very cost effective Household Water Treatment (HWT) as compared to other options of HWTs for disinfecting microbiological contamination. She also stressed on incorporating SODIS along with other HWTs in the action plan for drinking water policy 2009 and also suggested the replication of Existing Community Model of Faisalabad promotion of SODIS at national level by relevant ministries such as Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, District Government etc.

Ahmed Sohail, reflected on his experience of Industrial Solar Water Heating System and how his team was successful in implementing the solar thermal energy for disinfecting water.

Shakeel Ahmed Ramay gave his suggestions that where there are lesser energy options available nowadays SODIS is very economical. He stated that there needs to be a policy framework for sustained livelihood patterns and there needs to be government support. He stressed that it is now time that the media needs to be actively involved with the campaign. He also mentioned the already positive response of media and journalists, and appreciated their efforts.