Handling of Water - 4 Ways to Tackle Fecal Contamination

In this article I look at household water treatmentFecal contaminated water can be treated by:
and storage (handling of water), and how to tackle(a) Boiling
contamination.(b) Filtration
Treatment of the water supplied to houses is(c) Chemical disinfection
required when it is contaminated. The quality of(d) Cloth filtration
water may deteriorate with the contamination ofBoiling:
already treated water which may be due to faultyAny ova, cysts, bacteria and viruses present in the
distribution system, faulty household storage andcontaminated water could be killed by boiling the
improper handling of water.water by heating until it comes to a "rolling boil" and
To improve the quality aesthetically (eg; turbidity,maintained for minimum of one minute.
temperature, etc) and reduce fecal contamination it isWhen the altitude increases, then extra boiling time
necessary to practice some simple householdof 1 minute should be increased for every additional
treatment methods and hygienic storage and handling1000 meters above sea level.
of water. Improvement in the water quality usingThe main disadvantages of boiling are:
household treatment is not common.(a) It requires large amount of fuel.
In rural areas and even in urban areas water is often(b) It may give unacceptable and unpleasant taste to
carried from a well, spring, stand posts during suppliesthe water.
through tankers. If the supply is intermittent, it must(c) The water may again get recontaminated after it
be stored in homes. Treated water sometimes getshas cooled.
re-contaminated when transported or storedFiltration:
unhygienically. This leads to general risk in the publicSimple household filters are produced commercially
health. The water supplied, which is microbiologicallyand some manufactured locally that comply with high
safe, become grossly contaminated with fecalstandards. High proportion of solids, silts are removed
material before consumption because of poorby most filters.
handling.