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Safe Water System (SWS) - Where Has the SWS Been Used?
- Nepal
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| Safe Water Home
> Where?
> Nepal
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 Project
Partners
- International Buddist Society (IBS)
ENPHO (Environmental Public Health Organization)
Susan Murcott and Lee Hersh
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Nepal
Water Project
- Populations Services International
 Target
population
- 50 households in 17 villages around Lumbini (located
less than 10 km from the Indian border in the Terai
region of Nepal)
Project design and intervention elements
 Safe
storage using plastic 10 and 20 liter buckets with
lid and spigot plus 0.5% hypochlorite solution (between
January 2001 and January 2002 a 0.5% calcium hypochlorite
solution was used; 0.5% on-site generated sodium
hypochlorite is now under study). Currently, the
disinfectant, marketed under the brand name "Piyush",
is distributed for free by the IBS clinic, whose
doctor keeps records of the number of diarrhea episodes
and other symptoms in the study group.
Project start date
Results of project evaluation
- In January 2002, 16 of the original 36 households
in the pilot study were still practicing household
chlorination. Ten of these households were visited
during the evaluation for (1) administration of
a household survey designed to evaluate the appropriateness
of household chlorination in Lumbini; and (2)collection
of stored household water samples for free chlorine
residual testing and bacterial analysis.
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According to the household survey, less than
one percent of current  users
report complaints about the taste of chlorinated
water, and all households reported perceived health
effects,including reductions in diarrhea and abdominal
pain.
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Forty-three percent of households demonstrated
complete bacterial removal in their stored water,and
29% maintained free chlorine residuals between
0.2 and 1.0 mg/L. Complete bacterial removal was
observed in all households that maintained free
chlorine residuals between 0.2 and 1.0 mg/L.
Future Plans
- Based on the success of Piyush, PSI/Nepal is planning
to launch a second Safe Water System product, WaterGuard,
for use in the household, and support the existing
Piyush product for use in mobile populations. PSI
plans to launch WaterGuard in mid-2005.
For more information
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Date:
August 24, 2005
Content source: National Center for Infectious Diseases
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