Assessment of MSF model for sustainable drinking water solution to rural community of arsenic affected region in West Bengal

Abstract

Clean water is essential for health and the living in general for humans. For some people the access of clean and fresh water is a simplicity but for others, the lack of clean water, especially in rural areas creates one of the biggest humanitarian problems in the world today. For example, a child under the age of five dies every 20 seconds today, due to water-related diseases. For areas with widespread poverty and poor living conditions, it has shown that the access of clean water is a fundamental factor in order to increase the living situation and for the area to start develop. UNESCO claims that is possible to extinguish about 10 % of all diseases worldwide by implementing water treatment methods and sanitation facilities in vulnerable areas in order to improve the water quality. And reports from WHO and UNESCO shows that there is a clear connection between access to clean water and economic growth for a developing country. One of the oldest methods of water treatment is slow sand filtration (SSF) and HRF unit. The main advantage of MSF being its simplicity in design, have low capital cost, and ability to separate fine solids particles over prolonged periods (high solids retention capacity) without the addition of chemicals. The MSF unit in this study is a simple three-chamber system filled with sand and gravel and activated carbon and one tank is working as a water reservoir tank. Under suitable circumstances, this type of slow sand filter is a very effective water treatment method for purifying the water with both mechanical and biological processes. In rural area village chatra, we have studied their economic condition and drinking water-related issues. Considering the village situation, we have set up a MSF unit so that they can operate this unit with low maintenance cost as most of the villagers have low monthly income. For continued development of the SSF project it’s recommended to fill the filters with finer sand grains (0,2 – 0,45 mm), to at least a sand height of 40 cm, to spread more knowledge about maintenance of the filters and to continue to keep a regularly contact with the households to monitoring the status of the filters and also to maintain the relation between the household and the authority. The flexible and modular design options inherent to SSF systems, along with the modifications in expanded application, make SSFs highly attractive for potable water treatment in rural and remote regions. Keywords: slow sand filtration, rural water quality, potable water treatment, aeration system, biological activated carbon filtration.