Recipient organisationUlster UniversitySource-published name: University of Ulster
Funding£4.9M
PeriodSept 2017 — Mar 2022
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Nearly 1,000 children die each day from diarrhoeal diseases linked to contaminated drinking water, and this project will develop low-cost technologies to deliver safe water to rural communities in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. The problem is staggering: at least 1.8 billion people globally use faecally contaminated water, and 663 million lack even an improved source. Most of these people are poor, rural, and rely on untreated surface water, facing constant risk of typhoid, cholera, and hepatitis. Current solutions are often too expensive or require high-tech labs that remote regions cannot access. This research will create simple, affordable water treatment systems and portable devices to test water quality in the field, without needing a laboratory. The technologies will be tested under real conditions with rural communities, and the team will measure any resulting health benefits—fewer illnesses, fewer child deaths, and improved school attendance. If successful, the work could reduce the burden of waterborne disease, ease the pressure on women who typically collect household water, and create local economic opportunities if communities manufacture or maintain the systems themselves. The impact is direct and practical: cleaner water, healthier families, and stronger rural livelihoods.
View original technical description
At least 1.8 billion people globally use a source of drinking water that is faecally contaminated and thus likely to lead to diarrheal illness: nearly 1,000 children die each day due to water and sanitation-related diarrhoeal diseases. Safe drinking-water is required for all usual domestic purposes, including drinking, food preparation and personal hygiene. Diseases related to the consumption of contaminated drinking-water place a major burden on human health. In 2015 663 million people still lacked access to an improved drinking water source, and these are mostly the poor and marginalized. Almost a quarter of those people rely on surface water which is untreated and over 90% live in rural areas. Many people are forced to rely on sources that are microbiologically unsafe, leading to a higher risk of contracting waterborne diseases, including typhoid, hepatitis A and E, polio and cholera. This proposal aims to develop and assess low cost technologies for safe drinking water which can help address the significant socioeconomic impact of water borne diseases in developing regions. We will establish a centre which will involve a range of different expertise collaborating with universities in Brazil and Colombia and two not-for-profit organisations from Colombia and Mexico. The objectives are to develop low cost technologies to give clean water to the poor people in rural Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, and to develop devices which can be used to assess drinking water quality in remote regions without access to high tech laboratories. These water technologies will be tested under real conditions with the cooperation of the rural communities. We shall also assess any health benefits in the communities following the use of the technologies to give safe water. The main benefit of this research will be a reduced incidence of water borne diseases in developing regions. This will result in less illness and fewer deaths for children. This will also lead to improved quality of life for families. Females are normally responsible for water in the home and user-friendly, safe water systems will result in less pressure on females. Reduced illness means that children are more able to attend school and there will be less absence from employment for adults. If local communities can get involved in the manufacture, deployment and/or maintenance of water treatment systems, then this may lead to economic development in the communities.
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