Safe Water & Sanitation

Boy watches clean water flow from UV Tube Sri Lanka. Photo Credit: Amy PickeringLack of access to safe water and poor sanitation practices are recognized as fundamental causes of debilitating disease and death in developing countries. The Blum Center’s Safe Water & Sanitation portfolio of projects focuses on the development of the next generation of effective and affordable point-of-use (POU) water treatment technologies that remove biological and chemical contaminants. The technologies are specifically designed to respond to the needs of users in developing countries. The effort incorporates cross-cutting methodologies (needs assessments, consumer preference/marketing studies and epidemiological impact assessments) that both guide technology development and provide the basis for the business case to bring the technologies to scale.

The Blum Center provides support for the following projects in its Safe Water and Sanitation portfolio:

• Ultraviolet Tube Disinfection (UV Tube): Furthering the development of a low cost ultraviolet water treatment system that takes into account barriers to adoption and sustained use.
• Electrochemical Arsenic Removal (ECAR): Advancing a technology to remove arsenic from groundwater using only a bit of iron and a very small amount of electricity as inputs.
• Q-H2O: Antimicrobial Surfaces: Refining a technology that uses inexpensive, durable organic microbial surface coatings for POU water treatment.
• Accelerated Solar Disinfection (A-SODIS): Developing safe, inexpensive and locally available additives for accelerating solar disinfection.
• Health in Your Hands (Salud en tus Manos): Supporting the expansion of this effective program that combines hygiene education with hand sanitizer installation in rural ares to reduce hygiene-related illnesses.
• Safe Water In Schools 2010: Outfitting schools without access to safe drinking water with the low-cost and effective ultraviolet tube disinfectant (UV Tube).