Family filter with iron-coated sand: solution for arsenic removal in rural areas

The presence of arsenic in groundwater is recognised as a threat to public health world-wide and specifically in rural areas of several developing countries due to variety of health-related problems observed in populations ingesting arsenic-containing water. Several arsenic removal technologies suitable mainly for centralised treatment are available or under investigation. However, point-of-use arsenic removal systems, suitable for application at household level appear to be the only feasible solution under conditions prevailing in rural areas of developing countries characterised in general by the absence of centralised water supply systems. Several household level arsenic removal units are commercially available and some of them are currently under testing in Bangladesh. Nevertheless there is still need to develop a more efficient and sustainable point-of-use…