SAND WATER FILTERS: A LOW-COST TREATMENT SOLUTION FOR WATER POLLUTION PROBLEMS IN RURAL REGIONS

- Water is one of the essential needs of our life, without which the survival does not exist. For a healthy life it is important to consume water free of contaminants. Whether people residing in urban or in rural region, faces the problem of unhealthy drinking water. As in cities with day to day increase in population the quality of available water declines, whereas in villages people have to rely on open sources such as surface water, wells, lakes, rivers and ponds which might not be safe to drink all the time. In this paper we have presented the use of a simple filtration technique by using locally available material like sand, aggregate and charcoal as a filter media. Some of the parameters such as TDS, pH, Turbidity, Total Hardness, color and odor have been tested for checking the quality of filtered water to rendered it fit for drinking. This technology is economic, easy to operate and can easily serve the drinking water need of a rural family and a better alternative to RO technology common for an urban household.