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World Bank Report Lauds BioSand Water Filters

Samaritan’s Purse launched its Turn on the Tap fund-raising initiative in 2007 amidst a growing body of convincing in-the-field evidence that BioSand Water Filters save lives, restore health, enable parents to work more and their children to study more, and generally improve the quality of life for filter owners.

Today, as an estimated 1.4 million children continue to die every year from diarrheal diseases caused by drinking contaminated water, the evidence in support of BioSand Water Filters from reputable, independent researchers continues to grow.

The latest research comes from The Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), an international partnership administered by the World Bank to help poor people have affordable, safe, and sustainable access to improved water supplies and sanitation services.

Read the WSP Field Note

Read the Executive Summary

The World Bank study focuses on households in rural Cambodia, where Samaritan’s Purse and its local partners have been building and installing BioSand Filters for decades. Researchers concluded that households using BSFs experience 47 per cent less diarrheal diseases than households without BSFs.

The World Bank study also found that filtering untreated water through BSFs reduces levels of potentially fatal Escherichia (e-coli) bacteria by 95 percent and of turbidity (cloudiness) by 85 percent.

In summary, BioSand Water Filters are saving lives.

Other findings from the study include:

• BSF-equipped households experienced between 4.4 to 6.3 cases of diarrhea per year compared to 8.0 to 9.9 cases per year among households not equipped with a BSFs
• The incidence of diarrheal disease among two to four years olds in BSF-equipped households was 44 per cent lower than in households not equipped with a BSFs
• Continued usage rates are higher for BSFs than for some other “point-of-use” water treatment options
• BSF performance is comparable to some other recommended treatment options, but BSFs have advantages: they can be built using locally-available materials and have no moving parts
• Recontamination of stored treated water remains a challenge to maintaining safe drinking water quality for all treatment options
• Despite recontamination during storage, concentrations of e-coli and cloudiness were still lower in BSF-treated and stored water than in untreated water

The World Health Organization and UNICEF say the health improvements from a 50-per-cent reduction in the number of people without access to safe drinking water would result in an extra 272 million school attendance days and 320 million productive work days each year in the developing world – resulting in major economic and social benefits.

Ways You Can Help
Pray Please pray that God will continue to provide direction to Samaritan’s Purse, as we respond to people’s needs, share the love of Christ, and serve the church worldwide.		Give The need is urgent. A child is dying every 20 seconds in the developing world from diarrhoeal diseases caused by polluted water. Donate Here.